For 15 years, Melbourne- based artist Van T. Rudd, with the help of others, covertly collected forks used by the world’s wealthy and powerful elite. He presented these eating utensils, still full of saliva and food debris, in the exhibition The Rich Forks, earlier this spring. As an addition to this exhibition, and in honor of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, Rudd is breaking out an unwashed fork used by Donald Trump back in 2011.
Rudd plans to insert Trump’s fork into a piece of halal meat, before exhibiting it at This is Not Art festival in Newcastle, Australia from September 29th to October 2nd. “It’s a great meeting point—an explosive combination—literally Trump’s anti-muslim racism clashing with humanity,” says Rudd.
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A fork used by Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull
After the dipping, the Trump fork will join those used by Hillary Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, amongst others. Then, in keeping with the political nature of the exhibition, Rudd intends to send the Turnbull fork to the Australian refugee detention center on the island of Nauru.
“At the last exhibition, there was no real destiny with the collected forks,” he says. “Now there’s some sort of climax point that hopefully adds to the political symbolism of the project.”
Click here to see more work by Van T. Rudd.
Related:
Steal This Fork: An Artist Spent 15 Years Stealing Silverware Used by the 1%
Shredded Spy Agency Documents Become Readymade Art
You’re a ‘Servant To Infinite Distraction’ at This Exhibition
