Project Overview:

(2016) As an armchair political pundit, I’ve found this year’s presidential election cycle to be one of the most troubling, dramatic, and fascinating in recent years of American politics. While the candidates are an interesting mix of progressives, capitalists, insider politicians, and oligarchs, I found the role of news agencies, and different media outlets significant in the creation of extreme and hyperbolic caricatures of each candidate—Clinton’s distrustfulness and nefarious wall street connections; Trump’s tiny hands, racism, and polarizing narcissism; Cruz’s arrogance and hypocritical Christian values; and Bernie’s blessing from a finch and army of young (mostly white) revolutionaries facing an obstructive DNC. Inspired by these caricatures, I wanted to create playful yet poignant portraits of each candidate incorporating different cultural symbols that playfully critiqued each candidate while also celebrating the narratives news agencies and media outlets constructed campaigns created.

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