Cult/Art
The Performance Artist and the Cult Leader in the Age of Trump
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.23203Keywords:
performance art, cult art, new religious movements, religious cultsAbstract
The American presidency of Donald J. Trump has been notorious in its disregard for established norms, while his radical reformation of the American project have led many to equate his presidency to a work of “performance art.” The worship of his followers and the devotion of his Republican base have led to Trump being hailed as a “flawed redeemer,” and all those who worship him as a new form of “religious cult.” News and media anchors regularly refer to the former American president as a cult leader, a performance artist, or both; yet neither signifiers are ever contextualized within the history of religion, or western art by those who invoke them. Both the performance artist and the cult leader are contemporary media constructions that activate the religious imagination through intrigue and horror. As an artist inventing a religion as art, and a scholar of new religious movements, I present this article as an excavation of these signifiers and speculate upon their unique conflation around the unprecedented American presidency of Donald J. Trump.
References
Akers, Matthew. 2012. The Artist is Present. Chicago: A Show of Force Productions/HBO Documentary Films.
Beuys, Joseph. “Jeder Mensch ein Kunstler,” print on paper, 1973, Tate National Galleries of Scotland. TATE online: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-joseph-beuys-every-man-is-an-artist-ar00704
Campbell, Colin. 1972. “The cult, the cultic milieu and secularization.” In A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain 5: 119–136.
CBC Arts. “Performance artist Andrea Fraser on the dangers of calling Trump a performance artist.” CBC Arts, accessed Jan. 25, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/arts/performance-artist-andrea-fraser-on-the-dangers-of-calling-trump-a-performance-artist-1.4607211
CNN. 2022. “Former cult member: Trump used techniques and tactics exactly the same as a cult.” Youtube, date accessed: Jan. 9, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFoMeZ2GJwI
Colville, Alex. 2021. “An artist and her gun in 1989: Xiao Lu’s accidental revolt.” Supchina. https://supchina.com/2021/03/16/an-artist-and-her-gun-in-1989-xiao-lus-accidental-revolt/
Coyle, Jake. 2015. “Michael Moore: American exceptionalism is the death of us.” AP News. https://apnews.com/article/c5b338806c874fe793dfadfca9985773
Digiacomi Claire. 2019. “L’Artiste russe qui voulait bruler la Banque de France condamne a un an de prison” Le Figaro. https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2019/01/10/03004-20190110ARTFIG00329-le-proces-del-artiste-russe-qui-voulait-bruler-la-banque-de-france-demarre-dans-lagitation.php
Duval, Cyril and AA Bronson. 2009. “AA Bronson,” AnOther Man. London, issue 9, Autumn/Winter.
Eblaor, Caroline. 2017. “Why performance has become the essential art medium of the 21st century.” Artnews, June 5. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/performance-blowing-medium-moment-973991
Eschelman, Raoul. 2008. Performatism, or the end of postmodernism. Aurora: The Davis Group Publishers.
Gardner, Anthony. 2010. “Aesthetics of emptiness and withdrawal: Contemporary European art and actually existing democratization.” Postcolonial Studies 13(2): 179–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2010.496437
Goldberg, Rosalee. 1979. Performance Art from Futurism to the Present. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Goldman, Edward. 2015. “Trump President…? No. Trump Performance Artist…? Oh Yes.” KCRW Art talk. https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/art-talk/trump-president-no-trump-performance-artist-oh-yes
Irwin, William. 2002. The Matrix and philosophy: Welcome to the desert of the real. Chicago, IL: Open Court Publishing.
Kishkovsky, Sophia. 2019. “Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky gets three-year prison sentence, but walks free for time served.” The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2019/01/11/russian-performance-artist-pyotr-pavlensky-gets-three-year-prison-sentence-but-walks-free-for-time-served
Lachman, Gary. 2018. Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump. New York: Random House.
Lippard, Lucy and John Chandler. 1968. “The dematerialization of art.” In Art International: 12(2): 31–36.
Marshall, Alex. 2020. “Marina Abramovic just wants conspiracy theorists to let her be.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/arts/design/marina-abramovic-satanist-conspiracytheory.html
O’Brien, Timothy. 2007. Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Paglia, Camille. 2003. “Cults and cosmic consciousness: Religious vision in the American 1960s.” Arion 10(3): 56–111
Schechner, Richard 2002. Performance Studies: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Sharlett, Jeff. 2020. “He’s the Chosen One to run America: Inside the cult of Trump, his rallies are church and he is the gospel.” Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel
Singer, M. T. 2003a. Cults in Our Midst. Revised Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
———. 2003b. “The process of brainwashing, psychological coercion and thought reform.” In Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader, edited by L. L. Dawson, 147–159. Oxford: Blackwell.
Stiles, Kristine. 2012. Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists” Writings. Berkely: University of California Press.
Taylor, Diana. 2016. Performance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Thomas, Aled and Edward Graham-Hyde. “Seeking new approaches to the alternative: The merging of New Religious Movements and the study of religion.” Rogue: The Journal for Alternative Academia 1(1): 4–16.
Wachowski, Lana and Lily. 2009. “The Ultimate Matrix Collection.” DVD, directed by the Wachowski siblings. Burbank: Warner Bros. Booklet, 1–2 “An Introduction from the Wachowski Brothers.
