Since 2001, the Speaker’s Advisory Committee for Works of Art has appointed an official artist for each general election. The artist follows the campaign trail around the UK and produces an artwork or artworks based on their observations. The most recent commission went to Joanne Coates, who covered the 2024 British Election, with previous artists including Adam Dant, Cornelia Parker and Nicky Hirst.
I was commissioned in 2010, and Parliament have just made a film about the work I made. You can watch it here: https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/exhibits/ea-2010/
British documentary photography from the 1960s to the present
Facing Britain paints a portrait of the special society of Great Britain: deep affection, humanity and humor characterize the inhabitants of the country. The exhibition includes several of my prints from The Election Project.
Away from popular motifs such as the Royals, the Beatles or Swinging London, the photographers look at people’s everyday lives, often with a dose of self-mockery and a sense of the absurd.
Her focus is on social and political issues: inequality and two-tier society, identity, protest and rebellion, racism and migration, the decline of the coal industry, consumer society, youth unemployment and Brexit.
For all their seriousness, the pictures convey a lot of the cheerful composure of the British.
More details here: https://www.moenchehaus.de/event/facing-britain/
The exhibition is organised by Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie
Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Participating photographers:
Mike Abrahams, Meredith Andrews, James Barnor, Rob Bremner, Rachel Louise Brown, John Bulmer, Tessa Bunney, Thom Corbishley, Robert Darch, John Davies, Anna Fox, Ken Grant, Judy Greenway, Mohamed Hassan, Paul Hill, David Hurn, Sirkka -Liisa Konttinen, Kalpesh Lathigra, Barry Lewis, Markéta Luskacová, Kirsty Mackay, Fran May, Stephen Mccoy, Niall Mcdiarmid, Daniel Meadows, Roy Mehta, Sandra Mickiewicz, Margaret Mitchell, Peter Mitchell, David Moore, Tish Murtha, John Myers, Kevin O’Farrell, Martin Parr, Mark Pinder, Yan Wang Preston, Ryan Prince, Kavi Pujara, Tony Ray-Jones, Paul Reas, Simon Roberts, Michelle Sank, Syd Shelton, Hazel Simcox, Dave Sinclair, Homer Sykes, Alys Tomlinson, Jon Tonks, Dan Wood, Tom Wood.
Tour venues:
27 Sep – 24 Nov 2020 / Museum Goch
3 Sep 2021 – 9 Jan 2022 / Kunsthalle Darmstadt
20 Feb – 1 May 2022 / Mönchehaus Museum Goslar
16 June – 18 Sept / Museum for Photography Krakow
Installation view Museum Goch
Since 2001 the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art have selected an ‘Election Artist’ to follow and observe the British general election, and to produce an artwork in response to their experience of the campaign. The first official artist was Jonathan Yeo in 2001, with David Godbold chosen for 2005. In 2015 the artist was Adam Dant with Cornelia Parker in 2017. Nicky Hirst has just been selected as the 2019 artist.
I received the commission to cover the 2010 election and during the twenty-four days of canvassing which ensued I traversed the UK, photographing events from the roof of my motorhome with a traditional 5×4 inch field camera on to film. My attention focused on the relationship between the canvassing politicians and the voting public. I recorded not only the three main political parties but also the smaller parties and independent candidates, whilst simultaneously inviting the public to submit their own images of election activity in their area via a website.
Simon Roberts photographing a Labour Party campaign event in Rochdale, 2010 © Daniel Lillie
The result was a series of 25 tableaux photographs, one representing each day I spent on the campaign trail, and includes a final photograph capturing an unexpected additional day: – the coalition talks. You can see the results of my commission here, along with an ancillary video work I made, When Did You Last Cry?
A newspaper I published with my final work was distributed free outside Parliament, and copies are available here.
You can watch a video interview on the BBC Politics Show where I discuss the commission here and an interview with Tim Clark on A-N, here.
The Election Project, House of Parliament, London, 2010 (Archival pigment prints, 122x102cm)
The Election Project Public Gallery, House of Parliament, London, 2010 (Archival pigment print, 1500x100cm)
An interview and selection of my work published in the May 2015 issue of Von Magazine, download a pdf here.
Here’s a few sample spreads….
To coincide with the upcoming General Election, Photofusion are pleased to present The Election Project by Simon Roberts.
9 April – 22 May 2015
LAUNCH PARTY
Thursday 16 April, 18.30 – 21.00
In 2010, Roberts was selected as the official British Election Artist, an appointment made by the House of Commons and commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art, to create an historic record of the UK General Election. Simon was the first photographic artist to be chosen.
Roberts’ exhibition at Photofusion will feature a selection of the large-format colour tableaux photographs from the final 25 images that form the project in its entirety, each having represented a day spent on the campaign (plus a final image capturing an extra day focused on the coalition talks).
As an antithetic yet complementary accompaniment to the work, Roberts also encouraged public participation in the project. He invited people to visually express their opinions on the campaign by uploading their own photographs to a special website created for the purpose (www.theelectionproject.co.uk).
A selection of the 1,696 images submitted will be presented on a monitor within the gallery and Photofusion will set up a live twitter feed for the public to add their 2015 election photographs under the hashtag #theelectionproject.
Simon will be doing an in-conversation at the gallery with Paul Halliday on Tuesday 12 May, 19.00
Download a press release here
Image: ‘Penri James, Plaid Cymru, Aberwyswyth, 24th April 2010’ from The Election Project by Simon Roberts/ courtesy of Parliamentary Art Collection
Photofusion is grateful to the Parliamentary Art Collection who kindly loaned the works for exhibition.
Flowers Gallery will be exhibiting my ‘The Election Project’ work alongside the work of Nicola Green. Nicola will be exhibiting ‘In Seven Days….’ her series produced as artist in residence on the Obama election campaign in 2008.
You can find out more about the exhibition here. We were both interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row program recently, discussing our differing approaches to documenting the electoral process. You can listen in here.
I’m delighted to say that copies of my specially produced newspaper will be available at the exhibition.
Flowers will also be exhibiting two painting shows in their London gallery spaces:
Boyd and Evans Paintings, Flowers – Kingsland Road: 14 February – 13 April 2013
Claerwen James, Flowers – Cork Street, 13 February – 16 March 2013
Sandwell St George’s Day Parade, Birmingham, 2010.
Today the work of the 2010 Election Artist, photographer Simon Roberts, is officially unveiled at an exhibition in the House of Commons.
The Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art commissioned Simon in March and his task was to provide an enduring and unique artistic response to the 2010 General Election, whilst at the same time achieving political and geographical balance around the country. To enable him to do this successfully, special access to the election campaign was arranged.
His attention focused on the relationship between the canvassing politicians and the voting public. He recorded not only the three main political parties but also the smaller parties and independent candidates, whilst simultaneously inviting the public to submit their own images of election activity in their area.
The result is a series of 25 images, one representing each day Simon spent on the campaign trail, and includes a final photograph capturing an unexpected additional day – the coalition talks. The 1,696 photographs submitted by members of the public also form part of a 15 metre installation opening on Wednesday 15th September, in Portcullis House.
The Speaker, Rt Hon John Bercow, commented:
“This is the third general election for which an election artist has been commissioned and the first time the resulting artwork has been in the medium of photography. Simon’s photographs are highly detailed and carefully crafted to provide the contextual backdrop for the action which he has chosen to record. There is much to enjoy and absorb in looking at the photographs as individual passages are played out in the background of the main action. Taken as a body of work, the series of photographs is, and will always be, an important documentary record around the country of the election campaign of 2010. Yet, equally importantly, the photographs which make up the series succeed as works of art in their own right. They are an important addition to the Parliamentary Art Collection at the House of Commons.”
The exhibition will be open to the public as part of Open House weekend (18th-19th Sept). For further public opening times please check the website:
http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/ele…
Public access to the Election Project exhibition in Portcullis House is by free guided tours offered on a first come first serve basis. The exhibition runs until 13th December and tour times are every Monday: 10.30am and 11.45am and Friday: 10.30am, 11.45am, 2pm and 3.15pm