‘This Feels Worse Than Trump’: Artists Voice Anguish After Boris Johnson’s Landslide Victory in the British General Election

The
artist Peter Liversidge has been posting mail art with a no-Brexit
message to Number 10
Downing Street for months. Politely addressed to the “current Prime
Minister,” the London-based artist has, so far, sent more than 450
notes. As of yet, he has received no reply. Now, the day after
Boris Johnson’s landslide general election victory, Liversidge vows
to carry on, posting another work this afternoon. But like many
artists opposed to Johnson’s right-wing populist version of
Conservatism, Friday the 13th is the day their worst nightmare came
true.

“This
feels worse than Trump as the Tories have such a horrific
backstory—for generations,” Liversidge tells Artnet News. The
historic scale of the Conservative Party’s victory was largely due
to its success in appealing to voters in parts of the North and
Midlands of England who had traditionally voted Labour. Johnson’s
personality and simplistic promise to “Get Brexit Done” by January
combined with an aversion among many white working-class
voters to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his version of
Socialism with a capital “S.” All in all, the party slumped to its
worst defeat since 1935. 

“It
feels like dropping back into the early to mid-’80s,” Liversidge
says, referring to the decade dominated by Margaret Thatcher’s
brand of free-market Conservatism. Johnson is a very different
politician. An opportunist and not an ideologue, he has been
accused of following a Trumpian playbook to secure
victory. 

In the
final days of the election campaign, several artists spoke out to encourage people to oust
the Tories by voting Labour, or tactically where the smaller Liberal
Democratic party had a foothold in England or Wales. The four
winners of this year’s Turner Prize used their acceptance speech to
make a statement addressing the divisions in the UK that have been
deepened by the battle to leave or remain in the European Union.
They jointly accepted the prestigious award, sporting “vote Labour”
badges—and nominee Tai Shani wore a “TORIES OUT”
necklace.

In
their joint statement, the artist collective wrote: “The Turner
Prize is given to ‘a British artist’ or artist working in Britain.
This year, as it has often done in the past, the prize has sought
to expand what it means to be ‘British.’ We find this significant
in an era marked by the rise of the right and the renewal of
fascism in an era of the Conservatives’ hostile environment, that
has paradoxically made each of us and many of our friends and
family increasingly unwelcome again in Britain.”

Like
many in Britain and abroad, Hannes Koch, the co-founder of the
London- and Berlin-based collective Random International, stayed up
to watch the general election coverage on television. It became
clear that Johnson was on course for an emphatic win before
midnight. (Use of the “F”-word correspondingly spiked on social
media.)

“It’s
admittedly a little hard for an outsider to understand how a
country can screw itself up so thoroughly,” Koch says, “and on so
many levels.” He still has hope, however, that art might play an
ameliorative role in the future of British
society. “We need
raging artists who continue to provide truthful and empathic space
for debate through their work, and we all need to do our part in
building fearless and loud alliances between science, politics, and
society who fight against the demise of hope and
truth.” 

The
Belgian-American artist Cécile B. Evans, who is based in London,
tweeted her support of Labour on the eve of election night. The
morning after she asked: “Where do we riot?” The artist Anish
Kapoor, who sounded gloomy yesterday when he urged people to vote
Labour via Instagram, simply wrote: “What sadness” today. David
Shrigley had urged people to “Stop Boris” by voting tactically.
Today, the artist posted a cartoon showing a lamb with the message:
“very very disappointed in you.” It seemed aimed at either Johnson,
those who voted for him, or both. 

Johnson’s charms, and claim to represent the
interests of the United Kingdom, were lost on Scottish voters. The
Scottish National Party achieved its own landslide victory. The art
historian, broadcaster, and former Conservative supporter Bendor
Grosvenor posted his own “political broadcast,” earlier this week
urging people to thwart Johnson and his version of
Brexit.

“Johnson’s majority, and ability to quickly pass the necessary
Brexit legislation, will bring some certainty to sectors like the
art market, although it remains to be seen whether it will be a
good or a bad deal, in terms of the movement of artworks,”
Grosvenor tells Artnet News. “For the arts as a whole, the outlook
is a little bleaker. In the search for silver linings, we can
perhaps take some comfort in the fact that despair drives
creativity.”

Online, Grosvenor urged those distraught at the
prospect of what Johnson has branded “The People’s Government,” in
power in Westminster for the next five years to “MoveToScotland.”
Coincidentally, that was the first thought of Eyal Weizman, the
London-based co-founder of the Turner Prize-nominated collective
Forensic Architecture. He deadpanned: “We are seeking political
asylum in Scotland.”

For
Johnson’s many fans and supporters, Friday 13, 2019, is a day of
celebration. On his agenda besides exiting the EU, and the end of
free movement of its citizens, is the creation of ten freeports,
and a partial reversal to some of the cuts made to arts funding
over the past decade. And he is enthusiastic about holding a
so-called Brexit Festival in 2022.

A
recent freedom of information request by BuzzFeed News UK revealed
that, so far, nearly $1 million has been spent on the $160 million
event. It is unclear how a festival celebrating a divisive and
messy divorce from Europe will be popular. A majority of people
voted for Remain parties yesterday, and voters in Scotland and
Northern Ireland are unlikely to celebrate a deal imposed by
English nationalists in Westminster. Much of Remain-voting London
also bucked the national trend in England, holding firm against the
Conservative swing, and the city today is hardly in a partying
mood.

The post ‘This Feels Worse Than Trump’: Artists Voice
Anguish After Boris Johnson’s Landslide Victory in the British
General Election appeared first on artnet News.