There were so many good things about yesterday’s US Presidential inauguration from youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman’s soaring, inspiring verse to Michelle Obama, majestic in a magenta pant suit. But the sight of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wrapped up against the Washington DC cold in a pair of fetching patterned brown woollen mittens has really made people smile, causing a sensation on social media. A meme created by author R. Eric Thomas showing Bernie with performance art queen Marina Abramovic has gone viral on Twitter, garnering more than 20,000 likes at the last count. Thomas’s photoshopped piece cleverly brings the couple together at Abramovic’s 2010 exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York when members of the public were invited to lock eyes with the artist in a face-to-face encounter. The show was called The Artist is Present, prompting a commentator to ask online: “Which is the artist and which is present though?” Thomas quips: “I think they are both claiming to be present. A buddy comedy!” The BBC reports meanwhile that the marvellous mittens were made by a schoolteacher from his home state using repurposed wool sweaters and recycled plastic bottles. Go Bernie.
— R. Eric Thomas (@oureric) January 20, 2021
