ZOE LEONARD, I WANT A PRESIDENT, 1992

Ink on onion skin paper, 11 × 8 1/2in. (27.9 × 21.6 cm)

“Zoe Leonard’s oft-cited work, ‘I want a president’ was written by the artist in 1992 in response to poet Eileen Myles’s presidential bid alongside George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. The text is emblematic of Leonard’s involvement with activist and feminist collectives; she began working in New York City in the 1980s, an era marked by heightened political awareness due to the enormous loss of the AIDS epidemic. Leonard’s piece continues to serve as a personal lament and a call to action.

The work’s repeated reproduction and citation, particularly during the 2016 U.S. election, propelled the document outside the trajectory of political art and literature and into popular culture. Leonard has said ‘I am interested in the space this text opens up for us to imagine and voice what we want in our leaders, and even beyond that, what we can envision for the future of our society. I still think that speaking up is itself a vital and powerful political act.” - Hauser & Wirth