SELLING ART TO MAKE POLITICS OR SELLING POLITICS TO MAKE ART
THE AQUARIUM PRESENTS THE ASSISTANT FOR MAYOR OF LONDON
2008 ELECTIONS
THE PROPOSAL
We were asked if we’d like to host the 2008 “Bid for Ken” auction, an art auction to raise funds for Ken Livingstone’s Mayor campaign.
Rather than say no we proposed that we’d be willing to host the auction on the understanding that the aquarium would also be putting forward a candidate for Mayor. That way we could all feel very gracious about hosting a fundraiser event for an opponent whilst capitalising on the publicity to gain attention for our own unique, subversive and playful campaign.
Ken jumped at this chance and the Bid For Ken auction took place on the 6th March raising him £230,000 for his election campaign. The fundraiser campaign table for THE ASSISTANT raised £230 on the same night.
The aquarium’s candidate is known as THE ASSISTANT. Some say he is the laziest member of STOT21stCplanB and others say he is the dark svengali force behind the aquarium. The rest say he doesn’t exist at all. His real name is Abraham Thunderwolf.
THE ASSISTANT’s campaign will be predominantly visual, and a series of posters, flyers, pamphlets, badges & t-shirts will be created to promote a wide range of policy ideas for a better or worse London.
THE ASSISTANT’s policy advisors will be artists, musicians and poets. We know that they are the biggest liars and the best creators of truths around, and no match for any politician.
The advisors to date are James Cauty, Billy Childish, STOT21stCplanB (aka the Janitor and the Assistant to the Janitor), Sexton Ming, and Jamie Reid.
Between them they will create a staggering array of visualised policy ideas that will embrace the brutal, dangerous and worrying as well as the beautiful, poetic and ideal.
The campaign will be funded by the sale of prints and merchandise generated by these ideas, and the best and worse selling ones will be selected as the key policies for the final leg of the election. This is called consumer power.
The campaign was launched with a poster attack on the 30th May 2007 at the Rich Mix Centre as part of the Festival of Youth Arts. It will end on May Day (election day) 2008.
If the £10,000 and 230 nomination votes needed to stand as a real candidate are not raised, THE ASSISTANT will abandon his bid to become Mayor and will instead create a new public, democratically elected post. THE IMAGINATOR.
THE IMAGINATOR will be like the Mayor but better. A booklet containing the manifestos of all THE IMAGINATORIAL candidates will be published to coincide with the booklet of the Mayoral candidates manifestos. One million of these will be distributed for free around London.
Fundraiser merchandise will be made available through the aquarium through the aquarium