Mixed Media Collage No. 26
Bed of Lies | 2021 | Mixed media; newsprint, cut paper, printmaking ink, oil, graphite, colored pencil, matte and satin glue, maple board, and 3.5 inch nails on Legion Lenox 100% cotton paper, rolled onto a copper pipe | 60 X 89 inches | Dedicated to journalist Dan Rather
November 7, 2021 | This piece has been in the works since February of this year and took on many iterations before this final one. Ironically, it kept getting bigger, and bigger, maxing out what my 4x8 table could fit.
Even before Trump was elected, I, like many Americans, couldn’t wrap my head around how he could be embroiled in scandal and lies without consequence.
The answer came in a Facebook post Dan Rather penned on November 21, 2016, called DONALD TRUMP AND THE BED OF NAILS. The way Rather articulated Trump’s survival amid scandal with this metaphor stayed with me. It’s simply the best explanation of “how can he get away with it?” I’ve heard.
At the end of Trump’s presidential term, many fact-checking organizations and news outlets tallied the number of lies and half-truths told during his term. The exact number varies. But they all agree: it was over 30,000.
In this work, Trump is laid out on a bed of nails, 300 to be exact. Each nail represents 1000 lies. These lies did not crush him. On the contrary, they elevated him. And not just him. Every Republican maintaining loyalty to him.
Fueled by self-preservation, each representative who voted against impeaching Trump in that short time between the January 6, 2021, insurrection and the inauguration of President Joe Biden has also risen. Each one, culpable. They carry the torch of misinformation and lies in order to save the republican, white, male establishment. I wrote each of their names on this work. They put party over country, and power over principle. Is what’s built on a bed of lies even real?
Original artwork © Erika Brask, 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this artwork may be reproduced or used in any form or through any means — graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, downloading, information storage, and retrieval systems — without written permission from the artist.
