Magna Carta (An Embroidery) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Magna Carta (An Embroidery) |
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Detail of the top left of Magna Carta (An Embroidery)
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| Artist | Cornelia Parker |
| Year | 2015 |
| Type | Embroidery |
| Subject | The Magna Carta English Wikipedia article as of 15 June 2014 |
| Dimensions | 1.5 m × 13 m (4.9 ft × 43 ft) |
Magna Carta (An Embroidery) is a special artwork created in 2015 by English artist Cornelia Parker. It's a huge piece of embroidered fabric that shows the entire text and pictures from an online encyclopedia article. This article was about the famous historical document called the Magna Carta. The artwork captures exactly how the article looked on English Wikipedia on June 15, 2014. This date was also the 799th anniversary of the Magna Carta document.
Contents
Making the Magna Carta Embroidery
This amazing hand-stitched embroidery is about 1.5 meters (5 feet) wide and almost 13 meters (42 feet) long! It was created to show how the Magna Carta's ideas are still important today, even in our digital world. Cornelia Parker called it "a snapshot of where the debate is right now." It shows all the changes made by Wikipedia users up to that specific date.
The artwork was requested by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford and the British Library. Cornelia Parker took a screenshot of the Wikipedia article and printed it onto a large piece of fabric. Just like Wikipedia, many people worked together to create this embroidery. The artwork was divided into 87 parts. These parts were sent to 200 different people who stitched them by hand.
Parker wanted people who had a connection to the Magna Carta to help. Most of the text was sewn by prisoners. Members of the Embroiderers' Guild stitched the pictures. At least one embroiderer from each part of the UK helped with this. Many famous people also stitched words or phrases that were important to them. Parker said she wanted to create a modern version of the Bayeux Tapestry, but focusing more on words than pictures.
The artwork even has a tea stain from a prisoner and a small spot of blood from a newspaper editor named Alan Rusbridger. He accidentally pricked his finger while sewing!
Who Stitched the Artwork?
Cornelia Parker invited around 200 people to help stitch parts of the artwork. These included prison inmates, people who work for civil rights, members of parliament (MPs), lawyers, and artists. A large part of the work was done by 36 prisoners from 13 different prisons in England. They were supervised by a group called Fine Cell Work. Members of the Embroiderers' Guild stitched the images. Students from the Royal School of Needlework and a London embroidery company called Hand & Lock also helped.
Six students from La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School in London were the youngest people to contribute to the artwork.
Parker also asked members of the royal family to help, but they politely declined. She noted that some politicians also chose not to contribute.
List of Contributors
Here are some of the people who helped stitch the embroidery:
- Julian Assange – stitched the word "freedom"
- Mary Beard
- Shami Chakrabarti – stitched "Charter of Liberties"
- Kenneth Clarke
- Jarvis Cocker – stitched "common people," a nod to his famous song
- Brian Eno – stitched "in perpetuity"
- Anthea Godfrey (from the Embroiderers' Guild) – stitched an image of Pope Innocent III
- Antony Gormley
- Germaine Greer
- Igor Judge, Baron Judge and Lady Judith Judge – stitched "Habeas Corpus"
- Christopher Le Brun – stitched "folio"
- Doreen Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon – stitched "justice," "denial," and "delay"
- Caroline Lucas
- Eliza Manningham-Buller – stitched "freedom"
- James McNeill QC – stitched "Abbots - witnesses"
- Caitlin Moran
- Cornelia Parker – stitched "prerogative"
- Janet Payne (from the Embroiderers' Guild) – stitched an image of King John signing Magna Carta
- Philip Pullman – stitched "Oxford"
- Alan Rusbridger – stitched "contemporary political relevance"
- Edward Snowden – stitched "liberty"
- Clive Stafford Smith – stitched his part while visiting a client at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- Peter Tatchell – stitched "democracy" (shared with Parker)
- Jimmy Wales – stitched "user's manual" (he is the co-founder of Wikipedia)
- Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi – stitched "freedom"
- Baroness Shirley Williams
- Students from La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School – stitched "Salisbury Cathedral," "Durham Cathedral," "South Africa," and "Australia"
Where You Can See It
Magna Carta (An Embroidery) was part of a special exhibition celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. It was shown in the Entrance Hall of the British Library from May 15 to July 24, 2015. Later, it traveled to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester (August – November 2016) and the Blackwell Hall of the Bodleian Library in Oxford (November 11, 2015 – January 3, 2016). It continued to tour other places in the United Kingdom during 2016 and 2017. In 2022, it was shown at Tate Britain as part of an exhibition about Cornelia Parker's work. From May 15 to September 17, 2023, you can see it at Salisbury Cathedral as part of an exhibition called To Be Free: Art and Liberty.
