Police have seized art posters from a Canberra music venue and bar that depict world leaders and others, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, wearing Nazi uniforms, and are investigating whether new federal hate symbol laws were broken.
David Howe, the owner of Dissent Cafe and Bar in Canberra’s CBD, said his venue was shut down for about two hours on Wednesday night as police investigated a complaint about hate imagery relating to five posters in the window.
“I think it’s ludicrous to be perfectly honest,” he told Guardian Australia, describing the works as an “anti-fascist statement” and noting the shut down had caused the cancellation of an interstate band’s performance.
By Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours later, the posters were placed back in the windows, with the contents covered with the word “CENSORED” in red. Howe said he hoped patrons appreciated their return, describing them “absolutely” as protest art.
The trump and Nyetnu (fuck it, I ain’t double checking spelling) posters are obviously satire, but I could see an argument that someone might be confused on the other three if there wasn’t the obvious context of everything else going on around them.
Is it satire, though? These ghouls are actually nazis, after all.
Satire’s the first word that popped into my head, but now that I’m probably overthinking it, is there a better term for this kind of commentary?