Images: Annemarie Wright courtesy of Woolff Gallery
The UK general election is looming on the horizon of the political landscape, which means that party leaders are on their paths towards wooing as many voters as possible. But it's not just the politicians whose voices are being heard—the public is making their opinions felt, too. And what better forum for that than Twitter?Artist Annemarie Wright has taken these—both positive and negative ("They range from vaguely complimentary to absolute condemnation,” she says)—and turned the text into handwritten portraits of David Cameron (Conservative), Ed Miliband (Labour), Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats), Nigel Farage (UKIP), and Natalie Bennett (Green Party) for a new exhibition called What do you think of? at Woolff Gallery. To create them, the artist collected the remarks from Twitter under accounts set up for each leader under the handle WDYTO (What Do You Think Of) and by following relevant hashtags from November 2014 to February 2015.
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Previously, Wright created a portrait of former British prime minister Tony Blair from the names of fallen soldiers. In this new exhibition, she's also taken another two former UK PMs as her subjects, Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, creating portraits from some of their iconic and infamous speeches. Additionally, the show includes a life-sized portrait of the Queen, along with portraits of pop stars and other celebs. “We live in a world made smaller by social media." Wright says, "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."The portraits will be on show at Woolff Gallery in London from April 30 to May 15, the week before the UK general election. Check them out below.David Cameron
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