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"Ivanka vacuums": The art installation that has Ivanka Trump fuming.

 

A very ballsy American artist has made herself very unpopular with the First Family over a conceptual art installation featuring Ivanka Trump.

It shows the President’s advisor (aka Trump’s daughter) as you’ve never seen her before… vacuuming.

Ivanka is said to be infuriated by the exhibit aptly named “Ivanka vacuums”.

The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, currently on display at Flashpoint gallery in Washington DC, encourages the public to throw crumbs on a bright pink carpeted platform, while Ivanka 2.0 vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering.

It live-streams for two hours every night.

One of the ‘conversations’ the artwork is trying to evoke is the idea Ivanka “cleans up” after her father. Watch her doing so in this video. 

Video via NBC

A text description next to the work reads, “A figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, working woman, blonde.”

The performance art is quite obviously intended to provoke discussion.

And it has most certainly succeeded there.

Ivanka has slammed the “offensive” art installation, telling the ABC: “I think it’s a very sexist representation of a woman, but what bothered me about this image is they hired a 16-year-old girl to stand there and have crumbs thrown at her.

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“I have a real problem with that, and that’s what has infuriated me more than anything,” she said.

She also took to Twitter…

The artist tried (and failed) to appeal to her personally.

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Ivanka’s brother also got involved.

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The fact that Ivanka even responded to the artwork shows it got under her skin.

A quick peruse of her Twitter account shows she usually keeps it pretty upbeat, sticking to her work and causes. (Unlike her father, whose Twitter account is a reaction to every provocation.)

The artist isn’t fazed by the reactions and in fact, she’s taking it as a compliment that her piece has made a mark and got people talking.

In a statement, she outlined why it hits a nerve:

“Here is what’s complicated: we enjoy throwing the crumbs for Ivanka to vacuum. That is the icky truth at the centre of the work. It’s funny, it’s pleasurable, it makes us feel powerful and we want to do it more.”

“We like having the power to elicit a specific and certain response. Also we know she’ll keep vacuuming whether we do it or not, so it’s not really our fault, right?” she continues.

Rubell is no stranger to making some noise.

Last year she let people smash her in the face with pies in an art installation called “Consent.”

What do you think of the artwork and what it stands for? Have your say in the comments below.