“I found I couldn’t be partisan looking back. I started to see the nuances of the political situation at the time”, says Alison Alder, the artist behind a new series of portraits of the first eight Prime Ministers of Australia on display in ‘onetoeight’. Each figure wears a lapel badge to reference a key aspect of their time in office. Women, including Margaret Fisher, who took part in historic marches for female suffrage, Jane Barton and Florence Reid, are included in the history via a vibrantly patterned wallpaper installation, which literally props up portraits of their husbands.
Alison Alder, No 008 Bruce, 2016, screenprint on tissue Museum of Australian Democracy Collection Courtesy the artist
Museum of Australian Democracy
Until February, 2018
Australian Capital Territory
