Thousands of self-portraits by children from across the UK have been
projected on to the frontage of Buckingham Palace to form a montage image of HM The Queen in a bid to break a Guinness World
Records record for Most artists working on the same art installation.
The Face Britain projections will run from
8.30 pm – 11.30 pm for three nights until Saturday 21st April. Face Britain is a unique project created by The Prince’s
Foundation for Children & the Arts and brought to life by PhotoBox to provide a platform to celebrate the nation’s
children and young people in the lead up to HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, The London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The
Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts is an educational charity established by HRH The Prince of Wales to enable
disadvantaged young people to access and engage with professional arts.
Face Britain invited children aged 4-16 years
of age to produce their own self portraits enabling them to explore their creativity and to consider their own identity and
place in history as the 2012 generation. Portraits at all levels of skill, and in any medium were acceptable, including
drawing, textiles, 3D, painting, graphics, and photography. The response has been amazing with over 200,000 portraits being
uploaded on to the Face Britain online gallery, and 1,000 portraits per hour being uploaded over the final week (24th-31st
March).”Face Britain is about empowering children to explore their identity creatively; using the arts to communicate how
they see themselves and giving us all a unique snapshot of our country’s future generation,”said Jeremy Newton, Chief
Executive, The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.
As well as the projection on to Buckingham Palace the
montage portrait of HM The Queen will be simultaneously screened for 24 hours on BBC Big Screens in 18 public locations
across the UK. It will also be screened across JCDecaux’s network of digital advertising screens in train stations and
shopping centres across the UK. The children’s individual portraits will also be shown across 200 JCDecaux screens by the
end of 2012.
The projection has been created by artist Ross Ashton of The Projection Studio and is made possible by
the generous support of Creative Technology. Ross’ previous projection work has been seen during HM The Queen’s Golden
Jubilee, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the London 2008 New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The montage image will be
attempting to break the Guinness World Records title for Most artists working on the same art installation – the
current record is 28,267 artists who contributed to an installation in Israel in 2009. Guinness World Records officials are
currently reviewing the evidence and will announce in the coming weeks whether a new world record has been set.
This
incredible one-off, record-breaking event can be witnessed outside Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA from 19th-21st April,
8.30 pm-11.30 pm. In addition, parents and guardians are able to purchase a unique piece of personalised Face Britain
merchandise containing their child’s self portrait, through PhotoBox, with 20% of all sales being donated to support the
work of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.
The children’s self portraits will be stored in
perpetuity for the nation by the British Library.
