Artist gives Epstein survivors ‘Believe survivors’ T-shirts

Eva Mueller’s wearable art T-shirts feature the phrase “Believe survivors” in reflective letters. An anonymous sponsor pays for them so that Mueller can give the shirts to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.

Mueller, a German-born photographer, lives and works in a Bushwick loft, a former knitting factory with high ceilings. They answered Urgent Matter’s artist profile questionnaire.

The artist runs three practices: a commercial headshot and portrait business, a participatory portrait project approaching 300 sitters, and the wearable-art line the survivor shirts come from, Art By Them.

The shirts grew out of the Epstein case and a desire to keep public attention on it, Mueller said.

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Epstein, the financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution, died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The Justice Department released over 3 million pages from its investigation in January under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. A group of survivors said the release exposed their names through incomplete redactions. Urgent Matter extensively reported on Epstein’s ties to the art world.

The garments are for sale through their @artbythem Instagram, but the artist said they need to move the line to a proper sales platform.

The current political moment constantly weighs on Mueller.

“It is exhausting to live through a political moment like this. I constantly feel that I am not doing enough to fight and resist what I see as the increasingly authoritarian and fascistic direction of the government,” Mueller said.