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The art world has a proud tradition of satire. Aristophanes, Rabelais, Swift and Scarfe are some of the many artists, in a variety of fields, renowned for picking up their pens to prick the pompous and the powerful.
The latest target for Australian satirists is the Minister for the Arts, Senator George Brandis QC, whose recent decision to strip $104.8 million from the Australia Council in order to establish a new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts has caused widespread shock and outrage. But artists have also responded satirically, establishing the George Brandis Live Art Experience as an online campaign designed to run concurrently with – and to draw attention to – the national #freethearts campaign, which has already seen Labor and The Greens throw their support behind a call for a Senate inquiry.
