which represents Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. To celebrate the opening on 25 July 2002, they dressed as clowns, processed the short distance from Charlotte Road over Old Street and deposited a coffin, marked "The Death of Conceptual Art", outside the White Cube's door with the comment, "This is the official date for the demise of conceptual art.""The Death of Conceptual Art", A Stuckist on Stuckism, stuckism.com Retrieved March 28, 2006 General election In 2001, Stuckist Co-founder, Charles Thomson stood as a Stuckist candidate for the 2001 British General Election, on an anti-Britart ticket, in the constituency of Islington South and Finsbury, against Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary. Thomson picked up 108 votes (0.4%). Cutting the string In spring 2003, artist Cornelia Parker was allowed by the authorities to wrap Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Kiss (1886) in Tate Britain in a mile of string. Many people felt it offensive to the original artwork and an act of vandalism rather than art. As a reaction, Stuckist artist Piers Butler cut the string, while couples stood around engaging in live kissing. However, this was described as an individual action outside the main Stuckist group by Thomson, who nevertheless took the opportunity to remark: "I was puzzled that Parker had been allowed to do her string-wrapping—thereby using another artist's work to promote her ideas—as this was precisely the allegation that an enraged Serota had thrown at me in Trafalgar Square and dubbed a 'cheap shot'." US Stuckist demonstrations Seattle Pigs on Parade In May 2001, the Seattle Stuckist group (J. Puma, Z.F. Lively, Amanda Perrin and Brett Hamil) protested with placards, such as "Art-vertising is bad for the soul" and "Tacky and lame", against "Pigs on Parade", large fibreglass pigs which had been installed in the city and decorated by artists to make money for charity. Their objection was to commercial devaluation of art through "an insidious trend in corporate art-vertising. It appeals to the lowest public tastes by providing a kitschy, totally predigested and inoffensive McArt for the masses." (Social or ethical comment was banned from the designs.) King 5 News mentioned the group (with a "glib chuckle"), but otherwise the event went unreported. There was a certain amount of public support, and Hamil concluded: "For some reason, Stuckists are saddled with the task of vocalizing what everyone already knows, and yet that doesn't make it any less valid. It just makes