Roman Trumpe-l'Oeil

This book Roman Trumpe–l’Oeil, features 54 digital photo montage portraits (2017-2024) created by Paula Gillen. Name, title, and quotes and by the subjects are presented along with the source opposite the portraits. In this series I merge images of Julius Caesar and his cohorts, as immortalized in ancient Roman sculpture, with the faces of the administration from the first Trump presidency and the broader political landscape of that era. As we navigate the second Trump presidency, the series has evolved into a poignant collection of souvenirs—portraits of past appointments whose gravitas and implications now appear starkly sober in hindsight. The work reveals how the past functions as an under-painting for the present. It unravels multiple layers of illusion—those tied to history, power, and the manipulation of portraiture—producing hybrid images of stone and photograph that never fully resolve as either, mirroring the complexities and contradictions of the times.