In this series of performances and exhibits, two sets of portraits were made during an eight day sitting period of Australia’s Federal Parliament. One set, revealed by Campbell kissing and wiping clean lipstick-coated dinner plates, were the accumulated signatures of 19th century portrait-makers of the Palawa woman Trukanini. The other set—engravings on acrylic with masticated black jelly-beans rubbed in—were portraits of politicians frozen by the video recorder during ABC broadcasts of Parliamentary Question Time.
At the end of the eight performances, the two sets of portraits faced off along the corridor of the National Portrait Gallery located at the time in Old Parliament House and overlooking the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the War Memorial and Mount Ainslie beyond.
Images
