Click

Now that George W. Bush is getting ready to move out of the White House, he might be on the lookout for some furniture to dress up the ole family home. Here’s what I suspect may well be on his and Mrs. Laura’s shopping list.

Abu Ghraib Coffee Table by Philip Toledano

He may also want something for the writing desk or perhaps to put on his collection of memorabilia on the mantlepiece.

Abu Ghraib Bobble-head by Philip Toledano

And since he is the father of two girls, why not pick up a little something for the grandkids they will no doubt pop out in the future?

Abdul the Amputee by Philip Toledano

This and other lifestyle products are available at America The Gift Shop, an installation project by Philip Toledano who in 2005 had a prophetic series called Bankrupt. Bankrupt was inspired by the burst of the internet bubble. In his introduction to the series, Toledano wrote, “America had not suffered a precipitous economic slump since the depression.” Now that the country looks to face a second depression, this neatly-crafted photograph is all the more poignant and heartbreaking. His journal of his father dealing with death and evaporating memory is beautifully shot and terribly intimate. Despite the fact that you feel as though you can almost feel the fuzz of his sweater and the soft bump of the veins on the wrinkled hand, these wonderful photographs don’t feel like transgressions. They just make me want to weep, quietly. A less depressing, stereotype-reinforcing but still touching project is Phone Sex. I say stereotype-reinforcing but I must admit, I didn’t expect Scheherzade‘s bio to include the BA in cultural anthropology from Columbia University. Damn middle class mentality….