SAN FRANCISCO—A life-sized and naked Donald Trump statue popped up overnight in San Francisco’s Castro District – just one of five that was unveiled Thursday, August 18 in several major cities across the U.S.
The statue, weighing approximately 80 pounds is composed of clay, plaster and silicone and sits at the corner of Castro and Market Streets; each statue was glued to the ground with industrial strength epoxy – an adhesive that dries within several minutes.
The project, named “The Emperor Has No B—s,” was a four-month in the making, coordinated, nationwide effort by INDECLINE – a self-described anarchist group; the piece was inspired, in part, by “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Hans Christian Andersen’s short story about an overly confident leader without clothing, an INDECLINE spokesperson—under conditions of anonymity—told The Washing Post, who was the first to break the news.
INDECLINE posted a video to their YouTube channel the same day the Donald Trump statues emerged—outlining the processes of how they were made; it can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7TeTzOgkMs
The group asked “Ginger”—a Las Vegas-based artist, to build the statues because of his experience designing monsters and haunted houses for horror movies in the past. He spent upwards of 25 hours each week working on the statues since they were commissioned in April, according to The Post. Ginger’s signature in engraved at the base of the statue.
“When the guys approached me, it was all because of my monster-making abilities,” said Ginger in an interview with the Post about how INDECLINE reached out to him. “Trump is just yet another monster, so it was absolutely in my wheelhouse to be able to create these monstrosities.”
INDECLINE members have placed bets amongst themselves about which city will destroy the statue first. They unanimously agreed that San Francisco would likely keep theirs the longest, because of the city’s liberal and progressive reputation.
The nude installments appeared across the country, in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle. San Francisco News reached out to INDECLINE for comment, but did not hear back before print. The Trump campaign declined to comment on the statues.
