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Ashley "Illma" Gore (born 2 March 1992) is an Australian-American artist, who lives and works in Los Angeles. As a gender fluid and feminist performance artist, Gore's work is based around political topics and the physical self, the significance and importance placed on the human body.
Works
Illma Gore rose to prominence in 2013 with her work Marriage Equality when she used her skin to broadcast a message – ‘my shirt didn't match my rights’ – by riding topless through Brisbane in response to Tony Abbott’s comments demeaning same-sex marriage.
In 2015, she launched another project, Human Canvas which allowed people to use her body as a medium, by sending her names and messages that she tattooed onto her body to create a one of a kind original art piece that could not be sold in a gallery or recreated. It is unfinished and has 3,000 strangers' stories, including marriage proposals, love letters, and remembrances of lost loved ones. It is a long term project only exhibited every 5 years where the artist will stand naked in a gallery for a month so that people can watch as the art ages and eventually fades away.
She painted American presidential candidate Donald Trump in early 2016 with a small penis, inspired by the prejudices she says people hold unconsciously about the idea of masculinity which apparently inspired Marco Rubio's insinuation about Trump's "small hands." For sharing her painting of Trump on Facebook, Gore was banned from the site and subject to a DMCA from an anonymous third-party copyright owner. She decided to make the work publicly available and free of charge after being publicly assaulted. Several other artworks referencing Trump having a "micro penis" appeared during the election, including Trump Highway being vandalized with the words "Micro Penis" some weeks after Gore's painting was shared on social media, and The Wieners Circle serving three-inch hotdogs as "Trump Footlongs". In August 2016, the Indecline art collective installed micro-penis Trump statues entitled "The Emperor Has No Balls", in five different states. The artists credited Gore's work as an inspiration.
In January 2017, a group of artists headed by Gore began work on a piece of art painted in human blood, protesting against the inauguration of Donald Trump. More than 20 pints of blood were donated by artists, musicians and activists for the work.