The Austrian-born artist Martin Roth actually likes seeing Donald Trump’s tweets stream through on the social media site. The President’s outspoken posts are powering fluorescent lights that sustain a lavender field grown by Roth in a subterranean gallery at the Austrian Cultural Forum in midtown Manhattan (until 21 June). The lights brighten and dim depending on the popularity of the tweets, which continue to cause controversy worldwide (Trump has, for instance, been in a recent Twitter spat with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London). “The pace and tenor of the current political discourse, blasted out through social media 24/7 without respite, affects our psyche in a profound way,” Roth told Salon.com. But it’s not just Donald’s tweets that are making the plants bloom; missives from Trump’s charming associates, such as press secretary Sean Spicer and Counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, are also nurturing the fragrant flowers.
