Sculptor Cornelia Parker named as official election artist

Cornelia Parker, a Turner Prize-nominated sculptor, has been named as the official artist for this year’s General Election.

Selected by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art, Ms Parker will observe the election and produce a piece in response to her experience of the campaign.

The 2017 General Election, set to take place on June 8, is the fifth to be recorded by an official election artist.

One of Britain’s leading installation artists, Cheshire-born Ms Parker said: “We live in scary but exhilarating times. The whole world order seems to be changing.

“As an artist, I feel honoured to have been invited to respond to such an important election.

“With all its challenging issues and complexity, it is an event that I’m excited to engage with and I look forward to sharing my finished work.”

Her final artwork will join the parliamentary art collection later this year. The collection is a unique resource which documents and illustrates the history of Parliament over the centuries.

Ms Parker’s work has been displayed both nationally and internationally, including at the Tate Modern, the British Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Alison McGovern, chair of the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art, said she is “delighted” at Ms Parker’s selection.

“She’s the first woman artist to take on this role and it’ll be really exciting to see how her ideas for this artwork develop over the campaign period,” Ms McGovern added.

Ms Parker is best known for large-scale creations like Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, where the Army blew-up a garden shed and she suspended the fragments around a light source.

Her piece The Maybe, staged at London’s Serpentine Gallery, was a collaboration with actress Tilda Swinton, who lay, as if asleep, in a glass cabinet.

Ms Parker’s recent projects have included Magna Carta (An Embroidery), celebrating the document’s 800th anniversary.

A commentary on freedoms from a 21st century perspective, the work, which toured round the UK, featured embroidered contributions from famous individuals engaged in politics and human rights.