Art Cuts Protesters Are Photoshopping George Brandis Into Classic Art, And It’s Beautiful

If Sun Tzu were to update The Art of War for modern audiences, he would probably need to add in a specific chapter on trolling George Brandis. As our Attorney-General and Minister for Arts, Brandis has already inspired people to CC him in to all their emails thanks to his support for metadata retention, and general aptitude for the role has prompted a mock call out for a new Minister for the Arts.

With the recent budget basically mugging the Australia Council at pen-point, the arts world has lost a great deal of autonomy in the way it funds projects. Instead of a peer reviewed system with deep understanding of the variety of projects out there, the money which previously would have been assigned to the Australia Council has instead been reallocated to the National Programme For Excellence In The Arts, a funding body conveniently managed by… the Arts portfolio.

Unsurprisingly, people aren’t thrilled by this change. But, with Brandis and the future of art seemingly inextricably linked, a group of people have embraced this bleak truth, forming “The George Brandis Live Art Experience“: a collective scattered across social media, dedicated to photoshopping Brandis into classical pieces of art.

It features a limited number of posts and is less than three weeks old. Which makes this fact that much more awkward:

The George Brandis Live Art Experience has more Facebook likes than George Brandis, Live Artist. #auspol #freethearts pic.twitter.com/juhbC2qiaL

— The Art of Brandis (@ArtOfBrandis) June 2, 2015

Here is Brandis-as-Venus wishing he didn’t upload that naked selfie to the cloud:

Here is Brandis consulting with a variety of different people on how arts funding should be allocated:

Here is Brandis retaining your metadata:

Here is Brandis as ‘Cubiest George’:

Here is Brandis looking back over all the projects Australia Council has greenlit in the past:

Here is Brandis as a gargoyle because why not:

And here is an image that will haunt your nightmares.

… You get the picture.

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To view more of The George Brandis Live Art Experience, follow them on Facebook.