Highs and Lows

'Highs and Lows,' a pen and ink illustration by Chris Downes, was published in the Hobart Mercury on the 29th of May 2024. 

The landscape-oriented image is filled with a grey room, the walls, floor and ceiling stretched to the edges of the piece, and most of the space taken up with the paler back wall of this room.  At the very top of the ceiling dangles an unlit light globe.  Far underneath this, in the centre of the floor, is a man in a green top, black pants and red shoes, looking upwards and standing on a very short ladder that reads 'Cost of living' across the three rungs. 

A man in a suit and glasses, with a briefcase, stands beside him and holds up a light globe. In large text in a yellow speech bubble, the suit-wearing man says, 'Here’s your one-off government issued light globe to help you during this financial crisis.'

In the bottom right corner is the artist’s signature, a little black C in a yellow square. 

The label text for this cartoon reads: After a tough year for Australian households in 2023, the challenging trend continued as the cost of everyday essentials kept on rising faster than household incomes. Downes' light bulb could be a reference to a nationwide program of issuing free replacement LED globes to lower electricity costs or to the $300 rebate in the latest federal Budget — or just a comment on the lack of ideas addressing the issue.