Much has been made of the announcement that the Museum of London is in talks to acquire the infamous inflatable baby blimp of President Trump, who is currently gracing hallowed palaces and governmental residences on his official state visit to the UK. The blimp depicts the 45th President as a toddler in a nappy brandishing a mobile phone, and is expected to fly above London again during protests in the capital. But the museum is also hoping to display the blimp of Sadiq Khan when the institution relocates from its current Barbican site to a bigger venue in West Smithfield in 2024. The blow-up effigy of Khan, a protest piece launched last year by Trump supporters, shows the Mayor of London in a fetching yellow bikini. "We are trying to connect with the people who made it," the museum director, Sharon Ament, told ITV news. And why bother with the blimps? "They're both really important and of their time. They characterise a satirical characteristic of British people, the way in which we sometimes respond to big issues using satire. They acknowledge the social discourse and dialogue in society at the moment," Ament says.
Sadiq Khan (blimp) courtesy Steve Eason (flickr)