Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism includes a chapter co-authored by Andrew Ellis Johnson and Susanne Slavick on Johnson’s DRAIN series.
Edited by Grant Hamming and Natalie Philips. Published by Routledge (2024).
Drain presents a collection of annotated drawings that camouflage Trump’s calumny with the glitz of his notorious ersatz aesthetic. The luxurious trappings of the former president’s personal and business properties are depicted as protecting and comforting creatures of the swamp, exposing the emptiness of his campaign promise “to drain the swamp in Washington” with ethics reforms “to make our government honest once again." The devil is in the details of the decor, and the corruption that perpetuates it, ensuring the persistence of vice and venality. Some of the swamp creatures appear as inflatable toys, to be tolerated, even enjoyed and played with. Like his charge to drain the swamp, they were never meant to be taken seriously.
Andrew Ellis Johnson, Sanctuary of Style (Tower), 2023, ink on paper, 50 x 55.5 inches