LONDON.- Portraits of David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage and Natalie Bennett, handwritten by artist Annemarie Wright using the text of opinions expressed on Twitter, have been revealed on Friday 17 April. They will go on public show at
Woolff Gallery London the week before the UK general election from 30 April 15 May 2015.
The opinions were collected by Wright from Twitter, where she set up an account for each subject with the acronym WDYTO (What Do You Think Of) and followed relevant hashtags from November 2014 to February 2015. They range from vaguely complimentary to absolute condemnation, she says.
Visitors to the solo exhibition, at Woolff Gallery on Charlotte Street, London, will be encouraged to share their own opinions of the election outcome in a guest book.
Wright cemented her place in history last April when her portrait of Sir Alex Ferguson, made on his retirement from the names of every player who ever played for him, went viral on Twitter and appeared in newspapers around the world. She counts Stephen Fry among her celebrity fans and the singer Adele, a collector of her work, commissioned a portrait of herself, written in her own lyrics.
The five party leaders will be joined by a life-sized portrait of the Queen, who will take over Queen Victoria as the longest serving British Monarch this year; who Wright says elicited an overall positive response. Portraits of Lady Thatcher and Winston Churchill composed from some of their most famous, or infamous, speeches, will also be on display alongside pop-stars and celebrities.
Preparing for this exhibition has been a really enlightening experience, from hung parliaments to hunger for blood; everybody has their own opinion on this general election.
We live in a world made smaller by social media. Everybody has an opinion to be shared, an online footprint that will last forever; the urge to go viral. What do you think of? is my attempt to capture this, to take a snapshot of the thoughts and opinions of the www generation.