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Ashley "Illma" Gore (born 2 March 1992) is an Australian-American artist, who lives and works in Los Angeles. Life Gore is the daughter of the Australian financier and resort developer Michael Graham Gore (1941-1994) and his third wife, the U.S.-born sports psychologist Karin Margaret Vernon (1963-2009). She has a twin sister called Bryton. In 1992, her family moved to Vancouver, Canada, following the collapse of her father's business empire. Soon after her father's death in 1994, her mother, who suffered from depression since then, returned to Australia with her twin daughters. Works Gore attracted attention in 2013 when she was one of several women who appeared topless in Brisbane with the message "my shirt didn't match my rights" written on their skin. The women dubbed this performance Marriage Equality, and said it was a response to Tony Abbott's comments against same-sex marriage. In 2015, Gore launched a similar project titled Human Canvas, consisting of her tattooing various names and messages onto her body. In 2016, she painted American presidential candidate Donald Trump with a micropenis. She repeatedly tried to sell the painting on eBay, but the company removed it for violating their policy on nudity. Gore temporarily had her Facebook account blocked after sharing the painting on the platform. The piece eventually went on display at Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, after galleries in the US refused to host the piece due to threats of violence from Trump supporters. Gore said: "The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great." In August 2016, the Indecline art collective installed micro-penis Trump statues entitled "The Emperor Has No Balls", in five different states. The artists credited Gore's work as an inspiration. In June that year, Gore erected a white picket fence on the Mexico/Arizona border, as a "peaceful protest art piece" in response to Trump's pledge to build a wall between the two countries. In January 2017, a group of artists headed by Gore began work on a piece of art painted in human blood, protesting against the inauguration of Donald Trump. More than 20 pints of blood were donated by artists, musicians and activists for the work.
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