Exhibition, pasteup: 31 Ferrars Place, South Melbourne.
The Grandmaster series reanimates the historical, allegorical and mythical themes of Old Masters paintings by combining them with choice comments made by our political leaders.
Shiels started her ‘Covid sanity project’ in 2020 and during lockdown posted her digital collages on social media. More recently selected works have had public outings as pasteups on hoardings in inner city Melbourne.
Hung like a salon in a state art gallery, the latest called ‘Six Months in Politics is a Long Time’ is a collection of prints made from January to July this year. Addressing themes such as climate change, women’s issues, Covid, refugee issues, these political parodies aim to make the politics of the day memorable.
In a time of extreme volatility and flux, it can be a slog to keep up with politics, as we get lost in the fog of reporting, analysis, and opinion. No one can be blamed for tuning out. These digital collages capture the values and decisions of our political leaders on critical issues like climate change, Covid, sexual violence against women and gender equality. The Grandmasters has been conceived to visually present these key events in a new context. The actions or inactions of this government will shape how we live in the future and like the grand narratives of history, we will look back and judge them.