Corridors of Power
Smith & Florance are collaborating again, fixing their collective beady eye onto the myths and legends of John Howard and his cronies. Of course he brought in gun control! …or did he?
Corridors of Power (M16 Gallery, Canberra, 2-26 Oct 2025) was the first creative response to the serial release of John Howard’s Cabinet Papers by poet Melinda Smith and artist Caren Florance. The last of the Cabinet Papers are due in 2028.
Elected in 1996, even before the first parliamentary sessions of Howard’s first term could officially begin, he was forced to respond to the Port Arthur shootings. In successive terms, he faced the 9/11 global emergency and the TAMPA Crisis and Children Overboard affair, with the panic occasioned by these events eventually evolving into his infamous ‘Pacific Solution’.
Howard remained in power for three more ministries, and he remains the longest serving Prime Minister after Robert Menzies. The policy decisions of the Howard Years to 2007 led to the rise of local Neo Liberalism and continue to shape Australia today, including the current aged care system (only just now being overhauled) and the Liberal party’s early resistance to action on climate change – as well as a number of myths and legends still circulating today. Of course he also brought in gun control… or did he?
Both artists would like to thank Creative Australia for its support of their ‘Found Poetry of the Howard Years’ project.
