Cultural Commentary
The Art of Presence : by Ariel A . Leigh
To Be Seen in Trump ’ s America
If we ’ re going to generalize ( and of course we are ), the Obama administration split politically conscious leftists into two camps : the complacent and the disillusioned . The former felt a sense of euphoria with every victory in the name of social progress , while the latter felt the fall of the heavy shadows under every shining accomplishment . The mold is always the same : pick an Obama-era success story , then shake it and see the fallout .
For every state that recognized same-gender marriages , LGBT folk continued to face home , workplace , and public discrimination and feared for safety . For every person who was eligible for comprehensive health care without being denied for a pre-existing condition , another would be denied access to basic health care based on low income ( and if state welfare wouldn ’ t pick up the case , a code to avoid tax penalty would serve a conciliation ). For every soldier withdrawn from Iraq , drones covertly surveyed and struck other “ problem ” areas .
So on and so on and so on .
The iconic features of art in what may be referred to tongue-in-cheek ( though I hope to g-d not in my lifetime ) as “ the dawning of the age of millennials ” refl ected this anxious dualism . Palatably pretty but dismal and dangerous singer-songwriters such as Lana Del Rey , Melanie Martinez , and Marina Diamandis cornered the airwaves . Connoisseurs and critics slammed into Banksy ’ s mock-up Dismaland with the tenacity of a Midwest family of fi ve descending on the real thing ( the Dismaland website seemed to have just as poor bandwidth and traffi c control as the real Disney site , at the very least ). The “ twist ” to every “ provocative ” horror movie that managed to claw its way into cinemas was always the same : the villain dies ( maybe ), the hero dies ( probably ), everyone dies ( defi nitely ), and the world keeps spinning . Nothing changes . That ’ s right , 2008 election slogan , nothing changes . Hence why every movie in the Obama administration was shot with the same regulation , g-dawful , “ gritty ” fi lters that made everything look dirty or blue — not sad , just literally blue .
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On TV or in the movies , almost every character that could be identifi ed as gender divergent or non-heterosexual would presumably be dead within the same season they were introduced , or most certainly by the end of the feature . But a conundrum : was the “ kill your gays ” trope a grim commentary on current events meant to shock and provoke complacent souls ( particularly those of the straight , white , cisgender set ) into acting on outrage , or was it a loaded message to the LGBT community , a casual reminder that a marriage license is neither a sword nor a shield ? Which came fi rst , the chicken or the egg ? Does art imitate life while imitating art ?
The aesthetic of the Obama age was pain , but not the bloody and raw gore of the Bush administration . This was the art the adolescents of that era created when they were told they didn ’ t have to worry anymore . This was a new type of subcutaneous chronic pain , which would be especially excruciating when worn with a smile . The cruel irony was that the same platforms that advocated for suicide and self-harm awareness and visible monikers for support were also converging points for self-deprecating comics or punchlines depicting hurting people hiding their hurt behind masks of mundanity ( think the infamous “ This is Fine ” dog from KC Green ’ s Gunshow ).
Such was the “ abomination of Obama ’ s nation ” that was lost in translation — the “ do as I say , not as I do , because I didn ’ t mean what I said ( except for the part I really meant )” neurosis that anticipates major meltdowns . Kanye ’ s happened to be very public , and his wasn ’ t the only one . An entire political party teetered dangerously on its own identity crisis over the course of the 2015 / 16 election cycle , and by the end of it , the Shepard Fairey Hope iconography was almost indistinguishable from the parody memes .
But what if there is hope for healing ? What if art in the age of Trump won ’ t serve like art in the Obama administration ? What if instead of paying backhanded compliments to complement his offi ce , art will aspire beyond the
Trump years ( however few or many there may be ). As the millennial demographic comes into its own after eight years of brow-beating , one would expect these adults to resemble the gruesome hostages seen in the previous generation ’ s gratuitous torture porn fl icks . To the contrary , the seeds of prosperity have been planted and are coming into bloom .
Superfi cially , the plot of Get Out mirrors the plot of Obama-era shock fl ick Tusk : both are about men who are “ foreign ” houseguests to the demographic refl ecting their amateur mad scientist hosts . Both fi lms follow the protagonists ’ fi ght for body autonomy . Both fi lms also deliver on the promise of their titles : Tusk boasts a gruesome , bestial climax , while Get Out features a black protagonist who survives his harrowing predicament when all the real-world evidence demonstrates how he shouldn ’ t have .
The backlash Beauty and the Beast experienced going public with its trademark “ exclusively gay moment ” ( patent pending ) was to be expected from the folk who spend their downtime writing missives for their mommy blogs , but the fear and apprehension from the LGBT community is a trauma from the previous administration . This community hasn ’ t forgotten “ kill your gays ” in the wake of the Pulse massacre . How effective could a “ gay moment ” be ? What could it possibly accomplish to undo years of inherited trauma ? Not much , alone , but in succession with other LGBT narratives great and small ? Whatever Beauty and the Beast does or doesn ’ t accomplish as a milemarker for gay visibility , the storyline does seize an opportunity to demonstrate how much mileage can be gained with empathy , compassion , and personal initiative to the pain we ’ ve burdened ourselves with in our art .
It would be disingenuous to outright predict what will change in our art culture in the Trump years , but for the fi rst time in a long time , there is hope to see and to be seen .
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