Michael Snape

 Than and Now Exhibition at Australian Galleries 2026

What a moment.
The first remark of a newly elected Anthony Albanese was to declare that the Uluṟu Statement would be fully implemented.
It came out of the blue, so much sweeter than a mere victory claim. This was visionary leadership. Whitlamesque.
 
This show charts the joy this moment brought. 
 
It charts the way that doubt changed its shape. 
 
It charts the way a song of joy became a subject of argument, of shrinking thinking. 
 
What’s in it for us, they asked? What will we lose? Why should the Indigenous people be preferred? Australia was about equality, they declared. 
 
Dutton, the doubt drover. 
 
The show charts the way The Voice fell over, was put away. 
 
The show charts how, for all this, The Voice became more ingrained and sits in us more than it ever did before.
 
From having been free standing Voice and Yes sculptures, I began to carve human figures to stand with the works, to start to make a world for them. 

This show is an account of all these moments.

                                                                                               MS ‘26