Enjoy the wittier side of Australian politics when Old Treasury presents Behind The Lines: The Year's Best Political Cartoons 2019.
The exhibition celebrates Australia's long and proud history of political cartooning and with the election in 2019, last year certainly served up a wealth of satirical scribbling.
More than 80 artworks from more than 30 political cartoonists across Australia will be featured, brought together under this year's theme of 'The Greatest Hits Tour' grounded in the musical undertones of many of the cartoons in the exhibition.
The theme is encapsulated in the event's hero image produced by 2019 Cartoonist Of The Year Jon Kudelka, showing PM Scott Morrison rocking out on top the federal tour van. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and the Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann are in the front seat, while Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese and Senator Penny Wong sit in the back seat.
Cartoon by Jon Kudelka
Another of Jon's cartoons also features, 'Health Warning', which muses on the impact of coal extraction and smoking on community and personal health, with one man smoking a cigarette in front of a line of mining trucks carrying successive loads of coal. It was published in response to approvals that would allow construction of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine, one of the election's most divisive points of contention.
Still on the election warpath, Mark Knight took inspiration form Kate Miller-Heidke's sway-pole performance at Eurovision Song Contest, which was held on the same day as the election. Mark parodies the sway-pole concept (sway-poll, get it?) and applies to the main contenders.
Cartoon by Pat Campbell
It's not all about having a laugh though, as Pat Campbell's entry 'Christchurch Fern' was produced in the wake of the terrorist attacks by an Australian man in Christchurch, New Zealand. Campbell’s image of the New Zealand silver fern with people at various stages of prayer also went global, and in it, many found a message of compassion, resilience and our shared humanity in the face of hatred.
In a time of mistrust and uncertainty, you can always rely on political cartoonists to put things in sharp, sometimes brutal, perspective.
