During the heat of the 2016 United States presidential election, street artist Plastic Jesus built a wall around the Donald Trump star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The miniature wall was put into place on July 20, 2016 as a form of commentary in regards to the now president’s questionable and controversial campaign promise to construct a massive border wall on the Unites States-Mexican border. Donald Trump’s promise was that the border wall would extend the entire length of the border with Mexico and was criticized for being racially motivated. From Donald Trump’s perspective, the wall was to be constructed in an effort to reduce illegal immigration from Mexico. However, Trump’s opponents viewed the wall proposal as a device for rallying his supporters using nationalistic and racially backed rhetoric. Plastic Jesus’ wall, which had dimensions of just 38” x 40” x 6”, was a small-scale production that offered huge commentary on Trump’s policy and on Donald Trump himself.
Plastic Jesus is a street artists based in Los Angeles, CA who produces work in a number of artistic mediums. His art often questions social norms, the habits of societies, and also comments on current event topics. His style has been compared to that of Banksy’s, and Plastic Jesus has even borrowed direct elements of Banksy’s artwork in his own creations. The Donald Trump wall is a very specific artwork that leaves little room for interpretation. The most noticeable feature of the wall is that it is very small. The wall is 6-inches tall and only large enough to surround Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame square. The social commentary about Donald Trump is glaring. In making the wall so tiny, much smaller than an individual person, Plastic Jesus is highlighting the trivialness of the border wall, its pointlessness, and how it will not prevent people from getting by it. The best example of this representation is when a person glides by Plastic Jesus’ sidewalk piece in just a few steps. Further, Plastic Jesus constructed the miniature wall to only surround Donald Trump’s star. This is a clear allegory for Donald Trump’s self-centeredness and shortsightedness. The wall represents, from Plastic Jesus’ perspective, Donald Trump’s attempt to “protect America” when Donald Trump is actually only looking out for his own self-interests.
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The miniature border wall surrounding Donald Trump’s star is an effective piece of artwork that promotes social justice. One of the main contributors to the artwork’s effectiveness is its location. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a high-traffic tourist destination in Los Angeles, CA. The Walk is a public sidewalk that hosts over 10 million visitors annually. This means that tens of thousands of people will visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame every day, which in turn means that this specific piece of artwork will gain great exposure, through both in-person views and shares on social media. Due to the artwork’s location, the piece has been featured on numerous media outlets that translated to millions of dollars in earned media advertising. Even further, showing this specific work of art on the street of Los Angeles is even more impactful considering the fact that Los Angeles County is 47.5% Hispanic or Latino. Plastic Jesus did an excellent job of choosing a high-traffic area to display his artwork. One criticism of Plastic Jesus’ wall is that the artist could have used the wall faces to deliver messages, either quotes from Donald Trump or individual criticism of the border wall proposal itself. It would have been very interesting if Plastic Jesus had created a large-scale wall face that allowed visitors to write graffiti-like comments on the wall itself.
- Jesus, Plastic. “Installs/sculptures.” Plastic Jesus. N.p., 20 July 2106. Web.
