The New York primary may be over, but the force is still strong with political street art in the Lower East Side, where a Brooklyn-based artist is hawking T-shirts emblazoned with "Star Wars" caricatures of each candidate.
When Colm Dilane of Williamsburg, also known as Kid Super, was recruited by Lower East Side gallery Wallplay to put up a politically themed billboard above its space at 118 Orchard St. in the days leading up to the primary, he drew his inspiration from a galaxy far, far away — and quickly found the candidates perfectly overlapped with the beloved sci-fi characters.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, Bernie looks so much like Yoda,’” said Dilane. “It was crazy how much each candidate fit a 'Star Wars' character.”
The billboard looming over the corner of Delancey and Orchard streets features “Yodi Sanders,” “Princess Lillary,” and “Darth Trump” along with a reminder to vote in the April 19 primary.
But even after the polls closed, Dilane found his mash-up was getting a lot of interest from the community — passersby often stopped to stare and snap a photo of the “Candidate Wars,” and images of the billboard were flooding Instagram.
“They were getting so much love,” he said. “Literally blocks of people were stopping to take pictures.”
Making the eye-catching sketches wearable was the natural next step, said Dilane, who runs a clothing store at 354 Broadway. He quickly churned out T-shirts with images of each of his caricatures accompanied by "Star Wars"-inspired names, including “Emperor Ted Cruzatine,” “Marco C-3 Rubio,” and “Jeb Jeb Bush.”
Dilane will be selling his wares for $28 apiece at a foldout table in front of the gallery until Monday, when the billboard comes down — but the T-shirts will still be available on his website at www.kidsuper.com.
