Following her first museum-scale installation at Wimbledon Museum, Young Masters artist Cristina Schek has seen her artwork Mid-Air selected by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE for a special Centenary Action card sent to every woman MP in the House of Commons. The work is now supporting the campaign for a gender-equal Parliament through a charity auction.
Cristina Schek at the Young Masters Her Court exhibition at Wimbledon Museum, July 2026, alongside Mid-Air from her Her Court: Levitation Series, later selected by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE for Centenary Action's parliamentary cards.
From Her Court to the Houses of Parliament
In July 2026, Transylvanian-born, London-based surrealist artist Cristina Schek presented Her Court, her first museum-scale mixed-media installation, as part of the Young Masters exhibition at Wimbledon Museum.
Bringing together photography, printed velvet, an antique Victorian chair, lace portraits and sound, Her Court explored women's history, authority and the struggle for political representation, drawing on Wimbledon's connections to the suffragette movement.
Among the historical figures incorporated into the installation were Rose Lamartine Yates, the Wimbledon suffragette whose Holloway Prison brooch is preserved in the museum's collection, and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, the suffragette and photographer associated with Hampton Court Palace.
Schek also created three companion artworks, Before Flight, Mid-Air and After Flight, collectively titled Her Court: Levitation Series (2026). The triptych explores three moments in the experience of becoming free.
In Mid-Air, a woman wearing ballet slippers rises between two Holloway Prison brooches, transformed into a pair of prison gates. The image draws directly upon the historic brooch awarded to Rose Lamartine Yates following her release from prison. But the figure is not imprisoned. She is balancing between the gates, suspended between danger and possibility.
Selected by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE
Following the Wimbledon Museum exhibition, Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE, granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst and great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, selected Mid-Air for a special Centenary Action card sent to women MPs across the UK Parliament.
On 26 August 2026, Schek joined Helen Pankhurst and the Centenary Action team to sign the cards before they were sent to Westminster.
Reflecting on the experience, Schek said:
“It was an immense privilege to have Mid-Air chosen for this initiative and to add my signature alongside Helen and the Centenary Action team. I never imagined an artwork inspired by Wimbledon's suffragette history would find its way to Parliament, a little over a century after the suffragettes fought for the vote.”
The initiative forms part of Centenary Action's Mission 2028, which seeks a diverse, gender-equal Parliament by the centenary of equal voting rights for women and men. With women holding 267 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, 58 additional seats held by women would bring representation to 50%.
Mid-Air Joins the Centenary Action Silent Auction
The story continues with Schek's donation of a specially released Artist's Proof of Mid-Air to Centenary Action's silent auction, supported by SYLVIA the musical.
The fundraising auction brings together donated artworks, cultural experiences and opportunities to support Centenary Action's work towards women's equal political representation.
Cristina Schek
Mid-Air, Her Court: Levitation Series, 2026
Archival pigment print
Image size: 42 × 29.7 cm
Mounted size: 51 × 41 cm
Edition of 3 + 2 Artist's Proofs
Artwork value: £1,500
Minimum bid: £700
Auction closes: Sunday 15 November 2026, 9:45pm GMT
Speaking about the artwork, Schek explains:
“Women have so often had to learn the extraordinary skill of walking their own path with balance, resilience and courage, even when the space beneath them feels uncertain. And it's no accident that she wears ballet slippers, because some journeys require elegance as much as strength.”
“The two Holloway Brooches become a pair of prison gates. But she is not locked in. She is walking the line between them. Somehow, in the middle of it all, she rises.”
The Artist's Proof has been donated courtesy of Cristina Schek and Cynthia Corbett Gallery / Young Masters Art Prize.
EXPLORE CRISTINA SCHEK'S HER COURT PROJECT
Young Masters congratulates Cristina Schek on this recognition and is delighted to see the artistic and historical conversations initiated through Her Court continuing beyond the museum exhibition.