One month before the election, Tom Tenney and Phil Buehler’s mural displaying the 20,000+ lies told by Donald Trump while in office (so far), documents the unprecedented lack of honesty from our current Commander-in-Chief — and provides the backdrop for a social-distanced live broadcast and voter registration event. See you there… with your mask on, pleeeeze!
Your friendly redheaded editorial director,
MicheleC
In early February of 2020, Radio Free Brooklyn’s Executive Director, Tom Tenney, contacted the Washington Post to inquire if he could access the database of the (then) 17,000+ lies Trump had told while in office, which the publication documents, fact-checks and publishes on their website. “The original idea of the project was for a radio marathon on Radio Free Brooklyn: a 24/7 on-air reading of all of Trump’s lies for a full week leading up to the election,” says Tenney.
However, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit and staying in place became the norm, the project was shelved. It was Brooklyn artist (and RFB board vp) Phil Buehler who suggested reviving it as a visual art project. The result is Wall of Lies — a 50′ x 10′ outdoor mural documenting the now 20,000+ lies told by Donald Trump — which will be on public view on Grattan Street in Bushwick, from noon on Saturday, October 3 through 7:00 pm on Sunday, October 4.
“What I love about this piece is that from a distance, it looks like chaotic, glitchy 8-bit art… which seems an apt visual metaphor for the Trump presidency,” says Tenney. Adds Buehler: “… Since I’ve been making large-scale panoramic photographs of political events, [this] seemed the perfect match to Tom’s original idea. When you step closer, you can read the individual lies color-coded by category in chronological order. Then when you step back, you can recognize [the] patterns in Trump’s lying… it was just too good an idea not to happen somehow.”
The socially distanced live events accompanying the mural include a voter registration drive coordinated by Heather Rush, owner of the adjacent Pine Box Rock Shop, along with grassroots voting activists Rep Your Block — and a live broadcast from 3–6 pm on Sunday, October 4, where Radio Free Brooklyn will invite members of the public to read some of Trump’s most egregious lies on the air.
“As the countdown to Election Day is underway and Americans are already beginning to vote across the nation… we feel it’s vital to use our voice to call out these untruths in a visually provoking way,” says Tenney, adding: “It brings to mind another wall, Trump’s border wall, except this one he’s building to keep out the truth.”
Wall of Lies will be on public view outside Pine Box Rock Shop, 12 Grattan Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn, from 12 noon, Saturday October 3 through 7:00 pm, Sunday, October 4. Live RFB broadcast Sunday, October 4: 3–6 pm.
