Justine Lai Gets Some Political Action

At first glance, Justine Lai's paintings appear to a series of pretty standard erotic paintings, a young Asian woman in flagrante delicto with a rotating cast of older white men.

But a closer look reveals that there's something familiar about this group of men, as if we may have seen them somewhere... maybe in a history book or something? And then it hits you. This beautiful woman is having her way with all the presidents of the United States of America.

What's it all about? Justine's artist's statement makes her goals pretty clear:

I paint myself having sex with the U.S. Presidents in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated

Justine, consider yourself officially Crush Objected.

· Justine Lai (justinelai.com)