Trump, it seems, is everywhere

If you’ve been waiting for a nuanced portrayal of an architect on the big screen – away from the usual character clichés of mysterious love interest vs megalomaniacal genius – then your time has come. With the release of Oscar-tipped film The Brutalist, the architect, it seems, is front and centre.

The film has even fed into the latest creative take from our very own cultural icon, Louis Hellman. So here is Trump, hulking on the AJ’s cover this month, enthroned on the brutalist Southbank Centre, oil drill in hand. Trump, it seems, is everywhere.

Megalomaniac? Genius? The former property mogul’s cultural impact is already profound. Witness the impact on global climate crisis measures, international aid and diversity initiatives, to name a few.

Architecture and power have always gone hand-in-hand, of course (even if power hasn’t been grasped by the profession itself). So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of the US president’s initial executive orders for his second term, Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, demanded that designs for all new federal public buildings respect ‘traditional and classical architectural heritage’.

And, ever the real-estate guru, Trump’s designs on Gaza have made news around the globe. In an interview with US broadcaster Fox, he said of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip: ‘Think of it as a real estate development for the future’.

Interestingly, before Hellman’s cover cartoon came through, we were focused on another visual representation of culture. It is a beautiful photograph, by Gareth Gardner, of Nissen Richards Studio’s work for a new permanent exhibition at The Jersey Museum and Art Gallery. It shows an ancient book, in a glass case, opened and lit from above (see below).

Source: Gareth Gardner

Our film reviewer Rob Fiehn loved The Brutalist, by the way. His personal response to it feels particularly resonant: ‘We go on a journey with an immigrant fleeing persecution and finding his way in a strange land that instinctively wants to reject his ideas and approach. Suddenly, The Brutalist doesn’t feel like a period piece anymore.’

The February edition of the AJ is out now. Subscribers can read the digital edition here, or copies of the printed magazine can be purchased here. An AJ subscription is better value – click here to view our packages.