Object number2019.1
I want a president
Date1992/2018
Artist
Zoe Leonard
(American, born 1961)
Publisher
Treatment Action Group, New York
CultureAmerican
MediumInkjet print with Epson Ultrachrome pigment on onion skin paper
EditionOne from an edition of 100 plus 10 artist's proofs
DimensionsSheet: 11 × 8 1/2 in. (27.9 × 21.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Acquisition Fund
On View
Not on viewPeriod21st c
Classification(s)
Vassar Exhibitions
DescriptionBlack typewriter text at center reads: I want a dyke for president. I want a person / with aids for president and I want a fag for / vice president and I want someone with no / health insurance and I want someone who grew / up in a place where the earth is so saturated / with toxic waste that they didn't have a / choice about getting leukemia. I want a / president that had an abortion at sixteen and / I want a candidate who isn't the lesser of two / evils and I want a president who lost their / last lover to aids, who still sees that in / their eyes every time they lay down torest, / who held their lover in their arms and knew / they were dying. I want a president with no / airconditioning, a president who has stood on / line at the clinic, at the dmv, at the welfare / office and has been unemployed and layed off and / sexually harrassed and gaybashed and deported. / I want someone who has spent the night in the / tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and / survived rape. I want someone who has been in / love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has / made mistakes and learned from them. I want a / Black woman for president. I want someone with / bad teeth and an attitude ["and an attitude" crossed out], someone who has / eaten that nasty ["that nasty" crossed out] hospital food, someone who / crossdresses and has done drugs and been in / therapy. I want someone who has committed / civil disobedience. And I want to know why this / isn't possible. I want to know why we started / learning somewhere down the line that a president / is always a clown: always a john and never / a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker, / always a liar, always a thief and never caught.Terms
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