A mural in the 3500 block of South Liberty depicts the most offensive phrases from Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about women aired during the 2016 campaign. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
In 2016, then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump shocked at least part of the nation when audio of his crass comments about women became public.
Now, those same words are emblazoned in a mural spanning a wall on South Liberty Street, with the most offensive words replaced by cartoonish pictographs.
The mural excerpts lines by Trump that were recorded prior to the taping of a 2005 segment for an entertainment program. Four pictographs in the mural fill
in key blanks in his comments — a dog, a pair of bare female breasts, a star and a pink cat-eared hat made popular in protests around Trump after the comments.
The building with the mural is owned by developer Neal Morris, who thanked the artist in a social media post on Monday.
“Huge thanks to Cashy D for creating this dope mural on the wall at our warehouse,” Morris wrote on Instagram. “Keep ‘em coming dude.”
Morris said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he has invited other artists to paint on his properties around the city, and that the subject of the South Liberty piece was Cashy’s idea.
“I approved of the concept. I thought it was a great idea,” Morris said. “I think what the President said is horrendous and awful. It’s shameful, and anything that helps an artist resist, I am in favor of.”
Since the mural went up over the weekend, Morris said he has heard people on the street talk about what it stands for. Those are the kinds of conversations he hoped to provoke, he said.
“There’s nothing about the art that’s intended to satisfy the prurient interest,” Morris said, noting that the images standing in for offensive words are highly unrealistic. “What’s offensive is that this is what the President of the United States thinks about actual women.”
The mural drew little attention in the neighborhood late Wednesday afternoon. As children walked home from school past the message, two women stood watching them from the corner of Amelia Street and said they didn’t have a problem with it.
“It’s not my house,” one woman said. “They can do whatever they want with it.”
Murals are typically regulated by the Historic District Landmarks Commission and the City Council. It was unclear late Wednesday whether image depicting the President’s words had passed such review.
Nimbyism is alive and well. Call it art, call it first amendment, but definitely call it unwelcome in a residential neighborhood that didn’t ask for tits on a fence. Neither Neal not Cashy D live in the Milan area, and to be sure there’s no way in hell you’d catch this grand gesture on Neal’s work building on OCH or on his home on Prytania. When I contacted Neal through social media (because he has no email address on his website and he’d already started the convo on FB and Instagram) yesterday asking the mural be removed I was told to try to “lighten up.” I responded he and Cashy should try and respect neighborhoods they themselves do not reside in. I’ve since been blocked from his social media. So be it. Just remember kids, if you don’t like what some one is saying to you, you can always block them! I mean, who needs a productive dialogue anyway, right? So gather round neighbors for the final chestnut: this shit’s staying up. Why? Because the city doesn’t call art on a fence a mural but a “decorative feature.” So the next time we walk past the tits on the fence with my 6 year old daughter and /or her 3 older sisters we’ve raised on S Liberty since 2006, I’ll just reassure them the bureaucracy we’ve chosen to live under deems those tits decorative and all will be right with the world. Take down the mural Neal. It is wanted, and it is offensive. If it were your neighborhood this would be a very different story, but it’s not, so stop posing, poser.
There are tits everywhere. I actually have a pair of tits that I wear everyday. At least half of the country has tits. Your daughter has them, too. Maybe you can explain to her who said that and what it means and exactly what part of it is offensive. Best of luck to your daughters and to all women in this country – we need it.
Poser frat boys will be poser frat boys… what else did you expect from a Tulane grad? Since he can’t get away with it in his neighborhood he’s bringing it to a place he cares even less about. Central City. Way to go Mr Morris…keeping it real in someone else’s hood.
you live in new orleans and you’re mad about painted tits? looks like you’ve graduated to northshore living! bye!
“So the next time we walk past the tits on the fence with my 6 year old daughter and /or her 3 older sisters we’ve raised on S Liberty since 2006, I’ll just reassure them the bureaucracy we’ve chosen to live under deems those tits decorative and all will be right with the world.”
Or, you could simply say,,,,thanks Trump, it’s his words!
It’s just breasts.
I’m wondering if this matters, given that only the children of Democrats are going to see this anyway. I assume that if the sign quoted LBC saying “I’ll have those N****** voting Democratic for 200 years,” it would have to come down.
It doesn’t matter, because nothing matters anymore. Trump could shoot a woman in the tits and his people would be like “yeah, but Hillary….”
I would say, “Yeah, but Hillary…” too.
If LBJ was the President in 2017 and that recording had come out a year ago, I suspect there would be a mural saying that. But it’s been 50 years since LBJ said that. Times have changed. And LBJ is NOT President.
As a general rule, radical Democrats aren’t interested in criticizing other radical Democrats, which is why Obama got a pass from the media for 8 years after their non-stop criticism of Bush. LBJ would get the same pass Landrieu has gotten.
sick, sick, sick
The smug transplant owner thinks we all want to see his politics on his property. We don’t. It’s eye pollution & just trashy.