3rd Opposition (Keli Lane and Julia Gillard)

In Australia, a nation known for its obsession with sport, successful athletes occupy a uniquely vulnerable social position. When victorious, they are venerated in ways that our political leaders can only imagine. They're thrown ticker-tape parades, they receive glowing front-page reportage and commercial endorsements and are awarded Orders of Australia. Yet it takes only one off-field indiscretion to ignite an unresolved public debate on the legitimacy of our construction of the sportsperson as role model. Greg Creek engages with the subject of sport philosophically. He uses sport to highlight the fluidity of social structures and notions of leadership and ambition. Each of his four large-scale works in mixed media on paper are based on a series of invented dialogues between eight politicians and sportspeople. In one, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is depicted opposite Keli Lane, the former water polo champion who, in 1996, was convicted of the murder of her newborn daughter. These four works do not suggest literal relationships between two subjects, but rather form part of Creek's ongoing exploration of moral, religious and social allegory. He has said that the works "collectively examine the sense of desire, idealism and aspiration that is both fulfilled and at times let down by the reality of sports figures within the competitive structures of sports and society". Creek's thought-provoking allegories stimulate contemplation of themes no less significant than the conflict and humanity existing in our most scrutinised public figures, and in ourselves.