During the building of Australian Parliament House between 1981 and 1988, 24 artists were engaged from across the country to document its construction. One of these, Grace Cochrane, produced Decision to Federate, a work consisting of nine large panels combining photography and collage in an epic account of archival memory.

Join Grace Cochrane, artist, curator, writer and consultant in conversation with Martyn Jolly, artist, writer and Associate Professor at the Australian National University School of Art and Design, as they discuss how this work reveals so much more than a building’s foundations.

Image:

Series of 9 images for the Parliament House Construction Photography Project 
[detail]
1984-1986
hand-coloured gelatin silver prints and paper collage
276.2 x 930.6 x 3.8cm (overall)
Commissioned 1984
Parliament House Construction Photography Project
Parliament House Art Collection