The 2021 Behind the Lines cartoon exhibition sets out to prove one thing: you just can't predict the future.

Extract from ABC News 

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By Antoinette Radford

Posted 12 hours ago

Some of Australia's best political cartoonists are on display at the 2021 Behind the Lines exhibition.(Supplied: Glen Le Lievre)

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In a year where Australians sought consolation in statistical models and predictions, one thing became clear: you just can't predict the future.

And that's exactly what's on display at this year's Behind the Lines political cartoon exhibition.

The annual exhibition offers up a satirical summary of the year that was in politics with 126 different artworks from more than 40 cartoonists.

Among the art on display at the exhibition are works by well-known cartoonist Mark Knight.(Supplied)

This year the theme of the exhibition is "prophecy and chance" — tapping into the idea that no one could have expected the year to unfold as it did.

The exhibition is on show at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra and museum director Daryl Karp said the curators drew inspiration — quite literally — from the "obsession" we developed in 2021 with forecasts and predictions.

Ms Karp said she hoped the exhibition would provide some light relief after what was "another crazy year".

Peter Broelman's cartoon The Canberra Bubble.(Supplied)

"One of the things we set out … to say was: how do we have a sense of joy?"

"How do we remind people that this is a fabulously safe country, we're doing well, the sun is still shining?

"Really we wanted that sense that we're getting through it, there is hope at the end of it all. And that was the one thing that we really tried quite hard to do."

Freelance cartoonist draws top honour 

Voted as the 2021 Political Cartoonist of the Year, Glen Le Lievre described the year as a "bin fire".(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

This year's Political Cartoonist of the Year is Glen Le Lievre, a freelance and crowd-sourced artist who was unanimously voted as the winner by the panel of judges.

And, when asked about how he would describe 2021, he did not shy away from expressing his views.

"It's like a turducken of bin fires," he said.

"It's like a bin fire, inside a bin fire, inside a bin fire. And then garbage and a flaming bag of poo inside the successive three bin fires."

He said he believed people were looking forward to the future after a "moody" year.

"You don't want anything that focuses on the now or the present. So yeah, I think people would rather look to the future," he said.

The annual exhibition collates the best political cartoons of the year.(Supplied: Cathy Wilcox)

For the artists involved in this year's program, it is also a chance for their works to be appreciated on a wider scale.

"It's not just an exhibition about cartoons," Ms Karp said.

"Each of these artists in their own way are incredibly talented and really, really skilled at what they're doing."

The exhibition is on show at the Museum of Australian Democracy until late next year.