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Red Star Shining documents the extraordinary reign of the Australian Labor Party in Tasmanian politics that lasted for 16 years under four premiers. This period of Government begins in 1998 with a narrow victory in the state election by Jim Bacon, a former Maoist student leader and deputy of the Builders Labourer’s Federation (BLF) under Norm Gallagher.

This series of images was inspired by the Alcorso Foundation Italian Residency, which the artist undertook in 2013. The imagery for Red Star Shining is based on Byzantine and Greek mosaics found in Rome, Ravenna, Naples and Sicily. Bringing the subject matter into a contemporary context illustrates that stories of power, corruption and impropriety are age-old, and are recursive throughout time.

Image: Tony Woodward, “The Baptism of St. James”, from the series Red Star Shining, 2021, vitreous glass mosaics, marine ply. Photographer: Peter Whyte