Medium/Presentation: Digital illustration, multiple formats
Big Idea/Subject: Power
Major Theme: Social Order
Visual Components: Balance, color, contrast, line
Category: Pop Art
Description/Interpretation:
This image is a digital illustration depicting two famous United States political figures, Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, dressed as two famous pop culture figures, Princess Leia and Darth Vader from the famous Star Wars films. The image is two square format portraits as a diptych. The image of Trump/Vader is on the left, and the image of Clinton/Leia is on the right. The background of Trump/Vader is red, and the background of Clinton/Leia is blue. Text from the Declaration of Independence is printed across both backgrounds, unifying the image. The image depicts only the heads of the people, done in a high contrast, graphic style, with bright colors and blocked shading and highlights, similar to that of a comic book. Clinton has a stern look on her face and her gaze is turned towards her opponent. Trump has an almost pained smile on his face, and his gaze is directed more towards the viewer but slightly past. Trump is shown as the version of Vader that does not have his helmet on, when he is at his most vulnerable in the films. Along the center of the image is a white heart with an “x” in the middle, and the words “I love to hate you” are at the top, centered between the two figures.
This image is part of series of images the artist made portraying Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump during their political debates before the 2016 election. All of the imagery portrays the two politicians as pop culture duos, that have some sort of love/hate relationship. In this particular image, the characters Darth Vader and Princess Leia are actually father and daughter, however they are on opposite sides of the political world, with Vader loyal to the Empire and Leia leading a rebellion against them. In the movies, Vader is portrayed as the “bad” and Leia as the “good”, which seems to be the general feeling about Trump and Clinton, however, both of the candidates had their supporters and those that felt they both did not deserve to be President. Like Vader, Trump seems to have another agenda that only serves himself and those like him, and like Leia, Clinton was not able to overcome the inherent sexism of those in power. The colors Butcher Billy uses are related to the Political parties each candidate represents, red for Republican and blue for Democrat, but also give a feeling of anger and brashness versus calm and rational. Trump’s gaze is both patronizing and also distant which implies that he is not listening. The title of the piece goes even deeper into the relationship between the candidates. The fact that there was absolutely no hiding that they both disliked each other immensely. There was no polite discourse, just a lot of arguing. The imagery, although the typical Butcher Billy style, is reminiscent of pop art or a comic book also implies that the politics in the country have been reduced to cartoonish entertainment.
Use in Teaching:
This piece can be used to critically examine the world of politics in the country today, and how the world views it as a form of entertainment. The pop culture reference is a great way to introduce to younger people the personalities and the relationship dynamics between two political figures. Although the image and character choices imply that the artist has a liberal political leaning, the other images in the series show the two politicians in different ways, which is significant for examining different points of view and the validity of each. In a classroom setting, it would be interesting to compare and contrast all of the images and character choices with who the artist chose to portray them as, and it would be a great way to show how popular culture can be used to make a statement and not just as fan art. A great lesson would be to choose a favorite pop culture character and portray someone, either famous or not, as that character. The resulting imagery could tell a story about the “real life” subject’s personality, life choices or impact on the world. The students could use traditional drawing media, or digital media, or both, and examine the aspects of how traditional and digital media can be shared.
Discussion Questions:
- How was this piece created?
- Why do you think the artist chose to use non-traditional media?
- How would the meaning/message change if the artist used a traditional art material?
- How would you interpret the comparison of the two politicians to the two characters?
- Compare and contrast the rest of the “I Love to Hate You” series with this image. Are the real-life people portrayed differently in each set of images?
- What do you think the significance is of the written text on the image?
- How do you feel the artists style of drawing contributes to the meaning of the image?
- How does the artist’s use of color and composition contribute to the meaning of the piece?
- How is this type of art historically significant?
