Putin the drag queen and Obama the sex doll

“I published my first project, War Drags You Out, in January. So Saint Hoax was created almost 6 months ago,” the artist tells us in an email interview. In War Drags You Out she depicts world leaders as drag queens, transvestites living a glamorous life. “After attending a drag show for the first time, I was struck by the richness of this glamour oriented culture. The recipe for an iconic queen is very similar to that of a leader; a flamboyant name, personalized hairdo and outfits, et cetera.” They are not entirely alike however; “Unlike drag queens, the leaders don’t know when to take their costumes off.”

Behind every ‘great’ man, there’s a queen

Other projects followed in quick succession. In Happy Never After she uses the characters of the famous animation series Aladdin. They are displayed in contexts of conflict and see their visa applications denied. This series is based on a personal experience. In February she was given the opportunity to display her work in London but had to cancel those plans due to the fact that she could not get a visa. “That’s when I chose to make Happy Never After, which is an illustration of the current situation in the Middle East and the consequences it has for people of the region.”

© Saint Hoax

The goal of POPlitical Figures was to show that we are all responsible for the leaders that rule us. “With each breath, we exhale expectations. Our political leaders are our own personal sex dolls. They are a needle pop away from going back to the hollow vinyl exterior they once were.”

Like A Virgin, Princest Diaries, and the second part of Happy Never After, respectively her fourth, second last, and last project, have less of a direct political message as they deal with sexuality, incest and domestic violence. These series received a lot of media attention over the last few weeks.

In PoliVillains we can see world leaders depicted as the baddies we all know from famous cartoons; Erdoğan, Sarah Palin, and many others.

I portrayed Kim Jon-Un as the Queen of Hearts because he resembled her physically and mentally

“One day my 7-year-old cousin was eating cereal as she watched her cartoons. Five minutes into it, the show was interrupted by a news flash of an explosion that took the lives of 17 civilians. She pushed away the cereal box and left the room. As a tribute to every meal that was ever interrupted by the horrific acts of world leaders I have created the Cereal Killers series.”

In the Polliwood  series she modified famous film posters with world leaders in a starring role. “The silence of Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican President, is tearing his own people apart.” And how about Vladimir Putin in Breakfast in Ukraine, or Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, in V for Venezuela?

Her most recent explicitly political project Politicophobia was part of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia in May, an initiative the artist supported. The King of Saudi Arabia and George W. Bush are depicted after having received several blows. Something which unfortunately happens to all too many gay and transgender people.

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