Justine Lai, the Oval Office Courtesan

Truly, one big hug to io9.

Justine Lai, a Californian artist, has set out to paint herself having sex with every U.S. president chronologically, and so far has completed the first 18 (or, George Washington through Ulysses S. Grant) [GALLERY].  The paintings, as a body of work revolve around varying shades of human sexual behavior, portioning the Tender and the Kinky in equal lumps; and in addition by painting all of the pieces in largely the same color tones, Lai draws these behaviors together as universal and fleshly human — It will be interesting when, upon completion, the 44th painting will look drastically different from the rest when placed side by side, just in the palette.

Interesting: to juxtapose the portraits of James Polk and James Buchanan, especially in consideration of Lai’s facial expressions in each:

James Polk

James Buchanan

I feel that the most interesting paintings will be those forthcoming, those presidencies more recent in memory; I’ve already mentioned Barack Obama; how will the socio-sexual politics of the Monica Lewinsky affair effect the final composition of Bill Clinton’s portrait? – or how about the fact that the wives of Clinton, both Bushes, Obama, NANCY REAGAN are all still alive? – there is a revered place for FFM threesomes in the American consciousness; How will Justine Lai stroke Franklin Roosevelt (sorry, bad pun) considering that he enacted Executive Order 9066 in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, effectively imprisoning over 100,000 Asian-American citizens?

To approach these pieces at a more psychological level (read perverted, maybe): what can we read from any given sexual position or sexual act in relation to the portrayed President?  Why does Lincoln get a blow job?  Is it congratulatory fellatio?  Do we care that Millard Fillmore is muzzling Lai and pinning her hands, or do we care that Papa Ulysses Grant is spanking her silly?  With which President will we become privy to Lai’s vagina and what will it mean?

Franklin Pierce

I don’t fully understand the title of the collection, Join or Die, although Lai cryptically addresses her purpose:

In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States 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.

So it is “joining” and entering the Presidential bedsheets that opens Lai to vulnerable mortality, but doesn’t this contradict the notion of Join or Die?  I’m not sold on the title yet but I certainly am sold on the novel concept.