POLITICAL comedy is on the agenda at the Chifley Home and Education Centre in July.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
‘Behind the Lines: the year’s best political cartoons’ is a travelling exhibition from the Museum of Australian Democracy in the ACT and displays the work of some of the best cartoonists employed at the nation’s media outlets, including the Daily Telegraph, The Australian, Herald Sun, and the Canberra Times.
More than 80 cartoons make up the exhibition, selected from 500-800 submissions, all of which poke fun at the nature of politics in Australia during 2013.
Specifically, the exhibition focuses on the leadership of Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott through broken parliamentary alliances, caucus instability and leadership spills, prime ministerial changes, corruption scandals, cabinet reshuffles, policies and opinion polls.
The exhibition also features archived work from the 1940s and 1960s from seasoned cartoonists John Frith and Will Mahony, who worked for The Herald and the Daily News respectively.
Behind the Lines was curated by Dr Tania Cleary.
“2013 will be remembered as a year of challenges for Australia’s political leaders, drama for their constituents and endless inspiration for the nation’s cartoonists,” she said.
Each year, the exhibition selects a cartoonist as the Behind the Lines Cartoonist of the Year and features their work in the exhibition.
This year’s winner is editorial cartoonist for the Australian Financial Review David Rowe, for his consistently intelligent and insightful cartoons.
His cartoon “24 Hour news cycle”, displaying Tony Abbott wearing his trademark red Speedos on a bicycle with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard inside each wheel, was requested for Behind the Lines.
Bathurst Regional Council collections manager Tim Pike believes the exhibition will spark the interest of all Bathurst residents, regardless of their political allegiance.
“It crosses the political divide. It doesn’t matter if you’re a diehard Labor or Liberal, you’ll still have a laugh,” he said.
Mr Pike personally enjoys the cartoons without text, particularly “Australian Gothic” by John Tiedemann from the Daily Telegraph, but said what visitors will enjoy all comes down to what political party they back.
Behind the Lines runs at the Chifley Home and Education Centre until July 28.
You can visit the exhibition from 10am-2pm Saturday, Sunday, and Monday or call the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre on 6332 1444 to arrange a private tour.
The cost of the exhibition is $10 for adults, children $6, concession $8, and $26 for families.