IVANKA/TRUMP FAMILY: “Just a few months before Donald J. Trump became the Republican nominee for president, The New York Post published an interview with his first wife, Ivana. Speaking from her seven-story townhouse on the Upper East Side, the Czech emigrant praised the restrictive immigration policies proposed by her ex-husband, before adding, ‘As long as you come here legally and get a proper job … we need immigrants,’ she said. ‘Who’s going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don’t like to do that.’ That comment — loaded with both xenophobia and a snippet of truth — took on new relevance this month because of a work of performance art. For the better part of February, the artist Jennifer Rubell hired a look-alike of Ivana and Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, to vacuum in the former Flashpoint art gallery in Washington; the piece was titled “Ivanka Vacuuming.” The model put on stilettos and copies of the pale pink dress that Ivanka wore to G20 summit in 2017, which she attended in her official capacity as an adviser to the president. (The dress is also part of her clothing line.) The model did not speak as she vacuumed a small area of pink carpet, occasionally pausing to adjust the cord or sweep back their hair.”
–Jillian Steinhauer, “President Trump Has Inspired Art. That’s Not Always a Good Thing.,” The New York Times online, February 22, 2019