From Anish Kapoor to Martin Parr, great British artists take a stand against Boris Johnson and the Tories

Opposition to Boris Johnson and the British Tories, who won last Sunday’s U.K. general election by a clear margin (the Conservatives won 43.6 percent of the vote, compared to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour’s 32.2 percent), is also through the works and stances of leading artists from across the Channel, who in the hours leading up to and following the election round went wild on social media posting ad hoc made works, messages and video messages, and statements of their vote. Not only that, many artists also communicated their concern about Johnson’s victory. Among the first to expose himself, Peter Liversidge, known for his works on cardboard, used his favorite medium to create “No Brexit” signs by sending them repeatedly to 10 Downing Street (and has already let it be known that he will not stop). Liversidge was also among the first to speak to the press, “It’s worse than Trump’s victory in the United States,” he told Artnet News, “because the Conservatives have had, for generations, a horrible history. It feels like going back to the mid-1980s.”

Also expressing concern is Anish Kapoor, one of the world’s most celebrated artists, who posted his thoughts on Instagram. Kapoor had already distinguished himself this summer by creating a work, Oh to be in England now my Johnson’s in a twist, which was explicit and overtly polemical toward the British prime minister: in the hours leading up to the election, he posted a video message on his account with a declaration of his vote (“The Tories’ regime under which we have lived for the last ten years has handed us the most unequal society. Despite the fact that I am one of the privileged few, I will vote Labour in the election...join me”), while after the results he left a message where, echoing Johnson’s words just after the victory (“now we have to do Brexit, but first we have to have breakfast”), he merely insulted him (“Boris, the upper class imbecile. How sad”).

Also commenting laconically on the results was American (London resident) Cécile B. Evans, winner of the Illy Prize for Young People at Artissima 2016 (“where do we riot?” the artist asks on Twitter, meaning “where do we go to riot?”), the duo Ackroyd and Harvey, formed by Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, who merely posts an image of a trampled Union Jack on Instagram, and painter Nick Waplington, who is very pessimistic (“we will lose our freedoms and rights,” he writes on Instagram). In contrast, one of the members of the Young British Artists, Gavin Turk, speaks to The Art Newspaper, according to whom “Labour’s program had the best environmental policies: however, it seems that individualism, greed and consumerism are at the heart of the problems and that UK voters are not yet ready to recognize the importance of environmental issues. The young people now entering political life seem to offer a way forward and should be supported.” In contrast, Helen Cammock, a finalist this year for the Turner Prize (the most prestigious art prize awarded in the UK and among the largest in the world), merely posted on her social media an invitation to vote accompanied by a large red square.

Responding to the political climate with works of art are the great photographer Martin Parr, who spreads his images of anti-Brexit activists, collage artist Coldwar Steve, who created a satirical collage titled Polling Day where Boris Johnson on a bicycle is pushed by his spin doctor Dominic Cummings, and again artist and illustrator David Shrigley, who created a drawing with a lamb addressing the audience (“the lamb is very, very disappointed in all of you”), and Mark Leckey, winner of the 2008 Turner Prize, who made an appeal to vote for labor by adding the red rose, the symbol of the labor party, to some frames of his famous Fiorucci made me hard core video from 1999. In contrast, there are no reported stances from Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin (who had voted for the Tories in 2011, but recently has repeatedly spoken out against Brexit).

Below are images of how British artists reacted to the vote and its results.

Peter Liversidge

Ackroyd and Harvey

Martin Parr

Coldwar Steve

Mark Leckey

David Shrigley

From Anish Kapoor to Martin Parr, great British artists take a stand against Boris Johnson and the Tories

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