Party like it’s 1911

Art and design collective Dorothy is hoping to capture the spirit of radicalism with its interactive artwork The Nineteen Hundred and Eleven Party.

Running at Liverpool’s Bluecoat gallery as part of the Democratic Promenade exhibition, the work asks visitors to contribute to The Nineteen Hundred and Eleven Party’s manifesto, by creating posters which will be printed off and added to the gallery installation.

A selection of slogan-led posters (including ‘Bonuses for teachers and nurses, not bankers’ and ‘I stand for cake and cake alone!’) is hosted on the website, where visitors can contribute their own works.

The work takes its cue from the 1911 Liverpool Transport Strike, which saw dockers, railway workers and sailors walk out in a protest to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

Dorothy says, ‘The evolving artwork aims to create a social movement shaped entirely through its interaction with the audience, both in the gallery space and online. It asks if our pursuit of idealism and change is a strong now as it was 100 years ago.’

Alongside the 1911 strike, the wider Bluecoat exhibition marks other events that year, including the opening of the Liver Building.

As well as Dorothy’s growing work, the Democratic Promenade show also features an installation of 1000 Chinese dolls by Oliver Walker, Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass musical mash-up and Nina Edge’s An Eye for an Eye fabric work, which references India’s Bhopal disaster.

Democratic Promenade runs at the Bluecoat in Liverpool until 27 November