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During the recent federal election, an eye-catching piece of political art captured the public’s imagination. Titled No Hat, No Play, the satirical street-style intervention saw the Liberal candidate's posters transformed with 17 different outlandish hats, each chosen for maximum comic effect and symbolic punch.
And the gallery chosen to hang the work? None other than a construction fence at Richmond’s busiest traffic lights, where it was impossible for morning and evening commuters to miss the artworks.
The artist behind the work remains a mystery, though many believe they reside in the Hawkesbury. Their handiwork was shared across social media platforms, racking up an astonishing 850,000 views on Instagram after it was videoed and set to music from the iconic Men at Work song, Down Under.
The candidate whose election posters were graffitied, Mike Creed, was so impressed that he kept the modified versions depicting him with a hat - from a pirate, to a golfer, to a swaggy - and now counts them among his favourite campaign mementos.
Creed stood against sitting MP, Labor's Susan Templeman, and failed to win the seat but that didn't dampen his thrill at the creativity and humour of the hatted artworks. “People going into vote asked me about the hats and laughed. All it could say was I’m pleased you like it. I’m fascinated by its runaway online success.”
While humorous in execution, No Hat, No Play also sparked thoughtful conversations not only on the Instagram feed but also on local Facebook pages ranging from Hawkesbury Mums and Dads to Glossodia Country Free Meats. Some debated whether it was vandalism or art, while others simply applauded the creativity and guts it took to pull it off.
This piece of guerrilla art struck a chord across party lines — a rare feat in today’s political climate. It used humour, visual metaphor, and just a dash of mischief to critique political theatre.
In a time when politics can feel both exhausting and performative, works like this remind us that art, much like Picasso’s Guernica, can capture the mood of the moment in unexpected ways.
Whether this Banksy-style, subversive street art becomes a cultural touchstone remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain: no one in public life is truly safe from satire — and thank goodness for that.
Dr Billy Gruner is an Australian contemporary artist, curator, and arts advocate based at Mt Tomah. Gruner has developed an international reputation for his work in non-objective and concrete art, as well as for his leadership in artist-run initiatives and interdisciplinary cultural projects. He writes for the Hawkesbury Gazette on matters relating to local art and culture.
