The task at hand for the official Election Artist for 2024, Joanne Coates, is straightforward: observe the election and create a piece of artwork that is politically balanced, yet reflects the entire geography of the UK. Her artwork will be added to the Parliamentary Art Collection, and she will be awarded £20,000 for her accomplishment. Up until the date of the election, which is 4 July, she will follow both politicians and press throughout the country while studying their campaigns from close quarters.
While journalists may direct their attention to reporting the daily updates, an artist may offer an alternate perspective by reviewing the events of the day from a completely different standpoint. The subjects explored by Coates’ work include themes of rurality, hidden histories, and inequalities connected to low-income and those associated with political beliefs and principles, such as wealth, poverty and power. But would it not be challenging to remain politically neutral through the course of the project? Coates says it is not an issue, and she compares it to socialising in a village pub, where people hold varying political viewpoints and seek to coexist in harmony.
Coates is the seventh official election artist chosen by the Speaker of the House of Commons’ Advisory Committee on Works of Art, and is tasked with producing artwork that will “educate and inspire future generations.” The previous election artists have included photographer Simon Roberts, sculptor Cornelia Parker, and sketch artist Adam Dant. The first election artist was portrait painter Jonathan Yeo in 2001, who is perhaps best recognised for his portrait of King Charles III unveiled this year.
Yeo recogises the significance of an election as “a moment when politicians communicate with the public, and it’s this conversation that an artist can interpret in an interesting way.” He, therefore, regards the role of the election artist as one that “potentially can continue as a tradition, and there’s a lot more story-telling that can be done around it.” Yeo produced several portraits of the main party leaders, sizeable according to their share of the public vote. His artwork, “Proportional Representation,” was a punny triptych of the portraits of the three main political leaders.
Nicky Hirst generated a piece in 2019 that still resonates even today; a dangling mobile that highlights the vivid engagement between politicians and the public. Composed of geometric forms in bright primary colours, the installation follows the theme visible on her Instagram page from her time spent on the election campaign trail that year. She garnered inspiration from the various posters and signs she observed on her quest for conversations with the public.
Joanne Coates CCTV’s winning artist explains that the final artwork has an essential photographic element but it is too early to specify the finished product’s precise form. Coates has until September to produce her artwork, a three-month window that she calls “the joy of hindsight,” suggesting that some stories from the election may fade from memory by then, but the artwork will serve as a reminder in years to come
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