On Tuesday, First Daughter and advisor to the president Ivanka Trump classily responded to a degrading art exhibit in Washington, D.C. that features an Ivanka lookalike vacuuming crumbs.
The exhibit, called “Ivanka Vacuuming,” was created by conceptual artist Jennifer Rubell, a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Fine Arts, and depicts Ivanka in a pink dress and heels vacuuming crumbs off a pink carpet, The Daily Wire reported. In front of the exhibit is a white pedestal with a pile of crumbs that observers are encouraged to throw onto the carpet.
In a press release, the gallery claims it was inspired by Trump’s public persona that “incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities” including “daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde,” adding that the art piece “is simultaneously a visual celebration of a contemporary feminine icon; a portrait of our own relationship to that figure; and a questioning of our complicity in her role-playing.”
Rubell says the exhibit is open to multiple and contradictory interpretations that “are as critical of the interpreter as they are of the subject.”
“Here is what’s complicated: we enjoy throwing the crumbs for Ivanka to vacuum. That is the icky truth at the center of the work. It’s funny, it’s pleasurable, it makes us feel powerful, and we want to do it more,” Rubell said. “We like having the power to elicit a specific and certain response. Also, we know she’ll keep vacuuming whether we do it or not, so it’s not really our fault, right?”
“Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up,” Ivanka tweeted. “I choose the latter.”
Ivanka’s brother, Donald Trump Jr., also took offense to the “art exhibit.”
“Sad, but not surprising to watch self professed “feminists” launching sexist attacks against @IvankaTrump,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “In their crazed world, sexism is OK if it hurts their political enemies. That’s ok, they can go put on their stupid hats & she’ll get back to actually fighting for women.”
Rubell responded to Trump, claiming that it was not meant to “knock anyone down” and encouraged her to see the exhibit for herself without any media.
“Ivanka, I would encourage you to see the piece and form your own direct response,” Rubell tweeted. “I would be happy to arrange for you to do it alone with none of the media circus that has formed around it. Not knocking anyone down. Exploring complicated subjects we all care about.”
Rubell told Refinery29 that the audience isn’t throwing crumbs at the model playing Ivanka, only onto the carpet where she vacuums them up. She added that the crumbs can symbolize many different things, including the “cheapness of our appreciation of her and Trump’s “desire to clean things up.”
“It’s extremely open-ended and open to many different interpretations,” Rubell added. “One thing [tossing the crumbs] could say is that we’re all complicit in this dynamic and how it relates to feminism and femininity.”
This is not the first time Trump has had seemingly sexist attacks at her from so-called feminists.
In May, Samantha Bee called Ivanka a “feckless c——” on her show “Full Frontal,” and MSNBC contributor Joan Walsh attacked Trump for wearing a dress that showed off her “girliness” while sitting in for her father at the g20 summit in July. The model in the exhibit is wearing the same dress from the summit.
The exhibit says the “limited engagement performance art piece” will be displayed from February 1 – 17. The exhibit will also be live streamed between 6-8 p.m. EST.