I love America and America hates me

I love America and America hates me is a critical presentation by lens based artist, Gemma Marmalade and film maker, Stephen Watson. Reflecting on the work of the same title made by Marmalade and Watson, this film and still image installation is a reimagining of German artist Joseph Beuys’ seminal 1974 performance piece, I like America and America likes me. Beuys made this work where he reluctantly arrived in America for the first time amidst his anxiety towards the political actions of the USA and their global influence.
Fifty years later, I love America and America hates me meditates on the same conflictedness felt by Beuys, now contextualised in the twenty-first century by a female protagonist. In sharing a lexicon of visual and performative symbolism with Beuys, this work was made in Nevada on the 20th January 2025 – Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration as the 47th President of the United States of America. This visual testimony navigates an uncanny allegory of symptomatic estrangement from the current socio-political landscape.