ARTIST CREATES BREXIT BANKNOTE

Kevin Gill at his studio with The Brexit Note.

A Homerton artist's double-sided painting of a banknote featuring politicians closely associated with Brexit has been “delightfully received” by outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.

Kevin Gill, 23, whose 2016 artwork of Barack Obama on a billion-dollar note won praise from the former president himself, started work on a piece exploring the UK's relationship with the European Union last December.

The Brexit Note shows Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, David Davis, Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron facing European leaders including Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk and Angela Merkel.

Splitting them is a map of the UK, divided into red and blue – the colours of the opposing referendum campaigns.

The reverse, a Euro note, focuses on the beginnings of Britain's ties to the EU, with some of the union's founding fathers lining up alongside former prime ministers Winston Churchill and Ted Heath, under whose premiership the UK joined in 1973. It also details a list of treaties signed by the UK over the past 46 years as part of its commitment to the union.

Hackney-born Kevin says the oil-on-canvas is intended as a “historical document” examining the UK's decision to sign up as well as the more recent divisions created by Brexit, rather than coming down on one side of the debate or the other.

He told the Citizen: “Look at where we are today – divides and splits. Look back at history and you can see why everyone came together.”

It is this contrast that interests Kevin, who won't be drawn on whether he would like to see the UK remain or leave.

He is more concerned with the “time that has been wasted” on Brexit, symbolised by the image of Big Ben on The Brexit Note behind the British politicians.

To read the complete article, see:
‘History in the making': Hackney artist's Brexit gift ‘delightfully received' by Prime Minister Theresa May (https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2019/06/14/hackney-artist-brexit-gift-delightfully-received-prime-minister-theresa-may/)

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