Sunday, January 22, 2017

Political Fan-art: Star Wars Edition

I can't get enough of the homemade signs from the Women's March yesterday. I've really missed hand-printed signs since the advent of home printers. Plenty of posters were more high-tech, but  I loved seeing that a piece of cardboard and a magic marker still work!

This is my round-up of posters from the march and other political fan-art that draws on (mostly) Star Wars
Be forewarned: contains some pro-Trump art too.

Princess-General Leia appears in the role of unofficial Mother of Us All at anti-Trump marches.
 Examples.
How did everybody know? 
Was it independent convergent evolution––entirely possible, since not only is she an actual rebel general, but her actor, the very feminist Carrie Fisher, recently died–– or was it like my grade school days, when some girls used to call each other up and agree on wearing matching outfits the next day?

This one showed up a lot: A Woman’s Place Is In The Resistance [links to downloadable image], designed by Hayley Gilmore:
 Gilmore says, 
"Due to copyright of the Princes Leia press photo from 1977, I’m unable to place this poster for sale online.
A Woman’s Place Is In The Resistance … featuring General/Princess Leia Organa is intended to be a tribute to the life and legacy of Carrie Fisher. I wanted it to serve as a source of inspiration to those participating in the women marches across the country. It’s amazing to see how much joy this has brought people!"
Luke Skywalker tweets his approval:



Here's a great mash-up of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Star Wars from the Daily Dot's "32 of the best protest signs from the Women's March". The lines Princess Leia said to Obi Wan Kenobi are now addressed to RBG: 
 And here, below, is our president as the Death Star in Star Wars. HARSH!
Btw, I only found one Star Trek poster, but it's a good one:
in London, Ian McKellan carried a poster of his friend Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, facepalming. (It's an old meme.)


So... I got wondering if pro-Trump fan-art exists.
I found various photoshops of Trump Triumphant that aren't fanart. I love this one--I can really get behind its message:
                                   "Photoshop is hard, guys!"



I didn't find a much pro-Trump fan art based on popular media...
But then, I think fandom expresses its political views in the more immediate form of memes of photos of-the-moment (with or without words), like Michelle Obama's side-eye at the inauguration next to Jim Halpert, from the Office Scenes' Twitter:

Flama ("a digital network created by, for and starring young Latinos") posted a round-up in Nov. 4, 2016:
"There’s Donald Trump Fan Art And It’s Really Very Sad":
"A lot of the images conflate Trump with images from the Warhammer 40K series, in which a God-Emperor has arisen to protect humanity from cosmic threats."
Again, I sympathize: Photoshop is hard! and one of the hard things about it is getting the relative sizes right. I've had a hard time with that myself.

But--sometimes it works! This is a pretty great manip of David's "Napoleon Crosses the Alps", from

"5 Ways In Which Trump Supporters Are Like Cult Followers"
If you want a megalomaniac who is going to decimate the nation's youth and bankrupt its economy you could do worse than Napoleon. Heck, the French still love him, right? Well, some do.

It's really much easier to find anti-Trump fan art. 
 
Here's another Star Wars one (wow):
Trump as Jabba the Hut with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo taking the place of Princess Leia as his chained slave:


And another: Trump as villain Darth Vader & Hillary as Princess Leia, from the "Trump x Hillary I Love to Hate You" series, by Brazilian artist Billy Butcher:

But, "Rebellions are built on hope," according to Star Wars Rogue One.
So let's end on a happy, hopeful note:
This isn't fanart, but these collaged lady-bits prints by artist Ashley Longshore are so pretty & fun!
(From ^ "32 of the best protest signs from the Women's March" in the Daily Dot, "the internet's newspaper") 

Does all this give me hope?
You know what? It really does. The energy, the creativity, and the existence of a set of shared pop-culture references, yeah, it really does.

3 comments:

Bink said...

Here are two vids I thought were effective fan political art. The first link is Trump's tweets read by The Joker: https://youtu.be/SLS2D_UREQE

The second is Trump VS Bane (longer versions available but these 11 seconds says it all)

https://youtu.be/70hIxu4WCmM

Bane is definitely more charismatic.

ArtSparker said...

Several months ago, I searched Google Images with "Jabba the Trump". Lots!

Fresca said...

BINK: Seems we live in Gotham City...

SPARKER: Funny you thought to search that, or maybe not: it sure fits him.