Hillary Clinton’s emails have been a controversial and derisive subject, and arguably cost her the 2016 US presidential election.
The Clinton email saga began in 2015, when the New York Times reported that the Democratic presidential candidate used emails connected to a privately-owned server instead of a government email during her four years as US President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State. Then-US presidential nominee Donald Trump frequently referenced the emails during his campaign, causing the ‘scandal’ to blow up and become a contributing factor to Clinton’s loss in the election. (It should be noted, Clinton reportedly used the email for “convenience”, and isn’t the first public official to have done so.)
Now, her emails have become the stars of an exhibition in Venice, and Clinton herself paid a visit.
The project, created by American artist and poet Kenneth Goldsmith, is titled HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails (2019). In it, all 62,000 pages of Clinton’s controversial emails are printed as readymade artworks. Clinton’s Instagram post about the experience of seeing the piece reads:
“Found my emails at the Venice Biennale. Someone alert the House GOP.”
Prior to the exhibition opening, Goldsmith said of the emails: These are the most important political documents of our times. They have been discussed at every level of public opinion but almost no-one has read them. Hidden in full view, all the e-mails were available online but nevertheless they have become a sort of ghost. HILLARY is their first public appearance.
“It’s amazing – it completed the circle, in a way,” Goldsmith told ARTnews.
According to the artist, Clinton was with friends from high school on a trip through Italy when one suggested she go and see the piece. “It has her almost become an actor within my tableau,” Goldsmith said of Clinton’s visit. “It was unbelievable.”
Reportedly, Clinton sat down at the desk for nearly an hour, flipping through the fabled emails.
