The beginnings of that freedom, Parliament in the Making (2015)

This project was a commissioned set of banners that hung in Westminster Hall, at the heart of the UK Parliament celebrating 800 years of Magna Carta and 750 years of the Simon de Montfort parliament with a series of events and exhibitions throughout 2015, alongside Ruth Ewan, Ross Sinclair and others. (approx. 1 million visitors) Commemorating an 800 year history since Magna Carta, the exhibition covered 18 themes related to the movements and moments which ‘made a difference’ in the journey to the rights and representation that are enjoyed today. I was commissioned to produce two banners: Democracy to come, a banner which commemorated the 750th anniversary of the Simon de Montfort parliament in 1265. The text for this banner (a quote from Jacques Derrida) was prepared in Caslon, which is the typeface in which the American Constitution (inspired by Magna Carta) was first printed. As well as a producer of typeface, Caslon was a gun manufacturer and through this simple means the work maintains a potentially inseprable relationship between democracy and violence. Sprig of Rosemary, a banner which commemorated the Levellers 'Putney debates' in 1647, at St. Mary's Church in Putney Bridge. When they met in secret, the Levellers reportedly recognised each other by wearing a sprig of rosemary in their lapel. Although perhaps synonymous with English folksong, the herb is not native to the UK but originates in Turkey. In this way the work referred to the past of democracy in the historical association of the Levellers, but also to the future of democracy in how it responds to the contemporary issue of migration and the freedom to cross borders