Behind the Lines

Climb aboard the spaceship to Behind the Lines 2022, a travelling exhibition, developed and presented by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Celebrating the art of political cartooning, the exhibition explores all things alien and astronomical that have occurred in politics in Australia and around the world in 2022. It features 98 political cartoons by 34 of Australia’s political cartoonists.

The exhibition theme, Off the Planet, reflects on a year where lockdowns ended and borders opened, and we burst out from our living rooms eager to discover what more was out there. While life was starting to return to some sort of normality, Australians still felt uncertainty.

We faced new challenges with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, skyrocketing interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis. The election saw a new ship’s captain selected and new alien lifeform, the teal independents, made their way into parliament. And we looked to the stars to try to guess what the future holds. All this and more are represented on the walls of Behind the Lines.

This year’s exhibition features more emerging artists working in non-traditional publications than ever before.