A legend was born during the pandemic when a captioning error in the subtitles for an Australian Capital Territory (ACT) COVID-19 press conference saw a reference to Canberrans misspelt as ‘Ken Behrens’.
On the second day of ACT lockdown, the comic relief of Ken Behrens swept across social media. He was embraced by residents of the capital city, and ultimately, absorbed by popular culture as a new term of reference for Canberrans.
But Ken Behrens has not only become a capital figure of cultural identity, he is also widely regarded as a lockdown legend – one of many legends – who are the focus of a new exhibition by Charles Darwin University (CDU) Visual Arts Lecturer, Dr Kate Murphy.
Alice Springs-based Dr Murphy, who creates and exhibits under the name of Ellis Hutch, is now showing her work Tracing Conversations at the Canberra Museum and Gallery until July 30.
This audio-visual artwork (sound and video) explores the outstanding contribution of frontline and behind-the-scenes workers to the COVID-19 health response in the ACT. For instance
