Hair today, gone tomorrow.
Thanks to a clever guerrilla art project created by Doug Cameron and Tommy Noonan, you can protest your least favorite combover-wearin’ 2016 presidential candidate by camping out in a hairy hut built to comment on his luxurious lifestyle.
“We aim to stand out from typical activism, such as holding protest placards, because that sort of activism tends to at best generate eye rolls from the people you are trying to sway, and at worst, polarizes them,” Cameron told The Huffington Post. “We prefer to go lowbrow than highbrow. We start by identifying a cultural tension and then we respond with absurdist humor.”
The point of the project is that it’s funny, relatable, and easy to joke about, allowing viewers to feel connected by their beliefs. The two took a similar approach when protesting the closing of their favorite deli in Brooklyn, where they live.
They hope their projects will unite and achieve, rather than merely comment and isolate. And with the “Trump Hut” they succeeded when they transported the installation to the Republican National Convention last week, where Republicans and Democrats alike wanted to take photos with the hut.
The portable work can also be set up in other Trumpian spots, like the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where Cameron and Noonan originally envisioned the work. “We wanted the contrast between the two buildings, the hut and the tower, to not only emphasize the wealth divide but to get people empathizing with the hut,” Cameron said.
The “Trump Hut” gets its flowing locks from a material that’s central to its message: Mexican raffia, a straw used in grass skirts. It was constructed by Roxana Casillas, an artist who was born in Mexico.
“One of the things that we wanted to respond to is the ongoing criminalization of Mexican immigrants by politicians, and in particular by Donald Trump in his speeches,” Cameron said. “Our point of view is that America is a nation of immigrants, and greatly benefits from the skilled labor Mexican immigrants bring to our society. So when it came to making the hut, we decided to find a skilled Mexican immigrant who could make a tent of Donald Trump’s hair look so beautiful, that it would be hard for anybody to argue the value of this craftsmanship.”
Soon, you’ll be able to donate to the “Trump Hut” Kickstarter campaign, which will award the most generous donors a stay in the hut while it’s camped outside of Trump Tower, or Trump’s estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The biggest prize available to contributors: the ability to purchase their very own “Trump Hut.”
“We hope that we will do our own small part to keep the election somewhat focused on the wealth divide, which we think is an important issue to people who haven’t necessarily committed to one party or another,” Cameron said. “Our vision is that anybody can become a part of the Trump Hut real estate empire if he or she wants to.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is aserial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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