Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger and Liam Gillick join the election debate

Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger and Liam Gillick join the election debate

28 April, 2010
by: Spoonfed Arts Team

An impressive array of Britain's leading contemporary artists have come out in support of the Labour Party by designing a striking range of election posters.

A host of the UK's best known contemporary artists have been moved to join the election debate in support of the Labour Party. Leading artists – including Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger, Richard Wentworth, Liam Gillick, Jeremy Deller, Pure Evil, Bob & Roberta Smith and Fraser Muggeridge have all designed posters with a range of messages – pro-Labour, anti-Tory, or simply encouraging people to vote.

The project – organised by Rebecca Heald, Haroon Mirza, Richard Greer and Steve Lazarides – is called Make a Mark – the idea is for people to download the designs and do with them what they will. They can be printed, used as screen savers, or shared with others via email, Twitter, Facebook etc. Posters are apparently already appearing across the country.

Make a Mark has been launched in support of the Labour Party, but is independent of the party itself. As one of the organisers, Rebecca Heald, explains, “Labour does not have any money for campaigning, so Make a Mark is a tool for all to use”. Another aspect of the campaign that Heald is keen to stress is that many of these artists owe a lot to the financial help that Labour has pumped into the arts during their time in power. “The project is important,” she says, “in terms of mobilising the art community, a proportion of which has forgotten how much good Labour has done for the arts.”

During the lead-up to an election that seems to be taking place on an aesthetic level more than any other in history, the involvement of such art world heavyweights should not be underestimated. Many of the designs are clear and bold, and there seems to be a concerted effort to redraw lines of party difference in an age where Labour and Tory have combined into a single purple blur. The Tories are associated with public schools (Vicky Wright), private healthcare (Mark Wallinger), incompetence (Bob & Roberta Smith) and Rolls Royces (Stephen Connolly), whilst Labour is forward-thinking (A Practice for Everyday Life), fair (Clio Barnard) and united (Liam Gillick). But whether these are outdated divisions or the true identities that lurk beneath the artifice of electioneering, only time will tell.

www.makeamark.org.uk

Image credit, left to right: Vicky Wright, Liam Gillick.

Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in London.

Return to Spoonfed's London Art homepage.

Spoonfed Arts Team