The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia

Lucky Sidney and Australia.  Though they deserve some ‘luck’ after living through the recent months of bush fires.  They have the opportunity to see the Magna Carta (An Embroidery). It commemorates the signing of the Magna Carta 800 years ago.

It is the charter of rights and freedoms and formed the base of the Constitution of England and many other countries. It was drafted by the Barons and reluctantly signed by King John who subsequently tried to get it suspended.

Magna Carta (An Embroidery) is a 2015 work by English installation artist Cornelia Parker.

The artwork is an embroidered representation of the complete text and images of an online encyclopedia article for Magna Carta, as it appeared in English Wikipedia on 15 June 2014, the 799th anniversary of the document.

The hand-stitched embroidery is 1.5 metres wide and nearly 13 metres long. It is a response to the legacy of Magna Carta in the digital era and Parker has referred to it as “a snapshot of where the debate is right now”, the result of all open edits by English Wikipedians up to that date.Cornelia Parker used a screenshot from the 15 June 2014 English Wikipedia article for Magna Carta and printed it onto fabric.The embroidery was created through the collaboration of many individuals.  It was divided into 87 sections and sent to 200 individuals who each hand-stitched portions of the artwork. Cornelia Parker sought the collaboration of people and groups that have been affected by and associated with Magna Carta.

The bulk of the text of the Wikipedia page has been embroidered in various prisons by inmates under the supervision of Fine Cell Work, a social enterprise that trains prisoners in paid, skilled, creative needlework.

https://finecellwork.co.uk

You can read more about the making of this project at the MCA website.