BY: MIROSLAV TOMOSKI
There were only three people in Philadelphia who could rile up such mixed emotions with so little effort. One was about to become the Democratic Party’s first female nominee, and the other two had just returned from a cross country road trip on a bus that once belonged to Donald Trump. Mary Mihelic and David Gleeson, a team of artists known as t.RUTT, had travelled from coast to coast on that worn old greyhound since we last met. In the scorching heat of July, they returned home – for the Democratic National Convention – to a city primed for severe political outbursts.
Often inspiring wild reactions, the bus can send onlookers into a full spectrum of emotions which begins with outright disgust followed by stoned confusion and sudden understanding that becomes an ear-to-ear grin (read in reverse for Trump supporters).
Within minutes of parking the bus at Rittenhouse Square the crowds began to gather. At the intersection, a grizzly bearded man launched into a four-verse rendition of, “Hillary-dickery-dock, the treason has to stop!” before climbing back into his cab and driving away. Blinded by the brand, some Trump supporters posed for pictures to a backdrop that read T.RUMP while another threatened to sic his lapdog on David.
In the Fall of 2015, Gleeson went to Iowa to purchase a bus the Trump campaign had left behind. It came complete with a stripper pole, a broken speedometer, and a feeling of disbelief each time its new owners explained it was discovered on Craigslist.
t.RUTT have since transformed the bus into a rolling artwork against the billionaire entertainer and in just under a year the subtlety of their wit has left a trail of bewilderment across the country.
With Trump’s success outlasting the wildest predictions of the most seasoned politicos, Mary and David have developed something of a reluctant symbiotic relationship with the campaign. As Clinton supporters, they hope to see the former first lady become the first female president. But as artists, they’ve also promised to keep the bus rolling for as long as Trump’s campaign continues. So far, that promise has taken them further than they ever expected; from their home base at the Crane Arts Center in Philadelphia to the Mexican border where they recently began the construction of Trump’s wall.
In the small town of Jacumba Hot Springs, California, t.RUTT met Dave Landman, a 69-year-old nudist on a mission to revitalise his broken town. Landman is the owner of nearly 750 acres of land including much of the town’s commercial spaces. His takeover of Jacumba began with the DeAnza resort which he purchased as a retirement project and turned into a nudist destination.
“We built this resort from zero to one of the top-ten nudist resorts in the United States.” The nudist land owner told the San Diego Reader, “You’ll never find nicer people than nudists. It’s hard to be an asshole when you don’t have any clothes on.”
As he continued to buy up vacant lots the locals seemed to welcome his plan to revive the area and turn it into a tourist destination. With a desire to bring arts and culture back to the town, the Duke of Jacumba – as he jokingly calls himself – offered t.RUTT a plot of land 20 yards from the border where they could construct the wall.
“[I]t just sounds like the right thing to do…” He told to the New York Times when asked why he allowed the wall to be built on his land. “I’m kind of a spur-of-the-moment kind of a person, or I wouldn’t own a town, you know?”
On the American side, the cinderblock wall is covered by a large Trump campaign sign and a flag embroidered with a quote which reads, “Too much Monsanto in the corn creates issues in the brain.” The quote is one of several Trumpisms Mary has embroidered on flags as part of an on-board installation which hangs from the bus’s opened windows.
The wall is also decorated with dying flowers, rotting fruit, hoses, rakes and toilet bowl brushes to symbolise the effects of mass deportation on the American service and agriculture industries.
“As American artists, we wanted to show how we would be affected by the creation of the wall.” Mary said, pointing out that Mexican migrants now play a significant role in the American economy. “Everyone is talking about Mexico, yet such an action would affect the lives of everyone living here in the US.”
According to Pew Research, America would lose 8.1 million workers if it were to deport every illegal immigrant in the country, a number that current legal workers would not be able to replace in those industries.
Yet the beautiful way in which the artwork is arranged also seems to show a glimpse at what Trump’s wall might really look like. Just as the Berlin Wall was decorated with murals in defiance of that symbol of oppression and imprisonment, the Trump wall might one day serve as a canvas and a reminder that America once fought to tear down barriers.
Those who live by the border are already familiar with what this separation looks like. Behind t.RUTT’s installation, is a black fence which stretches all along the border and several hundred feet into the ocean.
“The fence that is behind the wall wasn’t there a decade ago” Mary said, “the people we met in Jacumba talked about how nice it was when they could just walk back and forth and have dinner with their Mexican neighbours.”
Staying true to Trump’s campaign promise, the artists sent a bill to the President of Mexico which reads, “On behalf of the good citizens of the United States, we submit this invoice for prompt payment for work completed to date on the Trump wall.”
As for the Mexican side, t.RUTT have left it blank saying, “We didn’t want to speak as Americans about what that would mean to Mexico and make assumptions about that.” Though they hope to find a partner across the border who will help them build a Mexican version of the wall.
The Trump campaign has refused to comment on any of t.RUTT’s work.
