The V&A’s election show is ‘the artistic equivalent of a hung parliament’

Victoria and Albert Museum, London
All of This Belongs to You was supposed to be a timely defence of free, publicly funded museums for voters to consider. Instead, a number of weak exhibits turn its message into a shaggy dog story

The V&A has done something daring and launched an exhibition about the public sphere to coincide with the general election. Unfortunately, it mirrors the election result currently forecast by opinion polls. All of This Belongs to You is the artistic equivalent of a hung parliament, confused and confusing and without a decisive message.

Only the title lives up to the title. As you enter the V&A, a big illuminated sign boldly declares: “All of This Belongs to You.” It resembles an artwork by Martin Creed or Nathan Coley but was in fact knocked up by the show’s designers. It’s an apposite statement at the start of this election. For the collections of the V&A and other public museums really do belong to us, and their future is in our hands. The very concept of publicly funded free museums, like the NHS, relies on a belief in large-scale state spending that seems unlikely to survive the £30bn worth of cuts planned by the Conservative party.

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