Posted at 13:27h
in
David Bellingham
Metal box, hand drawn sheets of paper with 1,916,594 individually drawn crosses. Some pages framed in glass and wood.
Turnout is a 1:1 representation of the voting public of Scotland. It is a monument to those who voted in the first national election following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The work takes the Scottish Parliamentary election of the 1st May 2003 as a model. 1,916,594 votes were cast in this election, amounting to 49.42% of the electorate.
Turnout consists of 1 916 594 individually drawn crosses, one cross for every person who voted. Groups of 1000 crosses were drawn on 1917 separate sheets of paper, the final sheet consisting of 594 crosses. The sheets of paper are housed in archival boxes which in turn are housed in an outer ‘ballot box'. The first 20 000 and last 20 000 crosses are framed. Outer box dimensions: 49cm x 37cmx 66cm
Where the traditional monument takes a partial list of proper names and sets them in stone, in Turnout voters are memorialised not in name but in action. Turnout was made at the Heart Gallery in Edinburgh between February and April 2006. Images on request.
NB - Please note Turnout is available for exhibition - do enquire.
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