Ben Dickson

Whitstable-based portrait artist Ben Dickson was challenged to create 50 portraits in under a month, to fill the unusable seats around the auditorium. Each image is an individual work of art. Together they do away with the need for intrusive signage and create an amusing and surprisingly animated life-sized audience.

Showcasing the richness and variety of Kent’s cultural life and history, the cut-outs feature an eclectic mix of artists, actors, musicians, dancers, directors, writers, comedians, politicians and historical characters.

They include Jane Austen (who can be seen sitting next to Shane McGowan of The Pogues), Tracey Emin (seated between Mick Jagger and Christopher Marlowe), The Clangers (created by Canterbury film-makers Oliver Postgate and Peter Fermin), poet Lemn Sissay (Canterbury’s former Poet Laureate) and, lurking at the back of the auditorium, the Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP in a recreation of his infamous lounging position last seen during the parliamentary debates on exiting the European Union.

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