SYDNEY — At position nine in a queue outside the Art Gallery of New South Wales, our observation began. The queue had formed for a new exhibition of paintings by the local artist Sidney Nolan: all 27 canvases of his Ned Kelly series, displayed together. The subject of all 27, an outlaw named Ned Kelly, died in 1880. The artist flattened him in 1946. Neither man has looked back since.
The queue numbered 61 at the start of the observation period and gained one arrival every 40 seconds. Members stand 45 centimetres apart and consider the distance generous. In 22 minutes we logged nine exchanges of the word 'sorry', each triggered by a bag touching a hip. No participant stepped backward. No participant turned around. The queue is a one-directional organ: it admits forward motion and apology, in that order.
Inside, the queue's purpose resolves into one repeated image. Nolan's Kelly is a black rectangle, usually on horseback, fitted with a single horizontal slit through which the wearer sees only what is directly ahead. We checked all 27 canvases. In every one, the slit faces the viewer. The subject cannot look back at the paintings behind him. The locals have queued to stand in the one direction he can see.
Admission on the day of our visit was governed by a waiting list, a queue of the queue, in which locals register their willingness to stand in the actual queue at a later, unspecified hour. Priya Ramanathan, the gallery's Manager of Visitor Experience, described the room's effect on the species: 'People tell me they feel watched in there. I remind them he is a painting. They say they know. They keep feeling watched.'
At position four, ahead of us, we interviewed Grahame Tunks, 71, a retired school bus driver who had held his place for 50 minutes. 'He never looked back once, that man,' Tunks said. 'And look at him now. Twenty-seven paintings. They don't do that for people who turn around.'
Our closing tally: 27 canvases, one slit, 61 bodies at first count, nine apologies, zero backward glances by any party present, including the subject. At 5:04 p.m. the gallery closed and the queue dissolved, re-forming within eleven minutes for the following day at position one. We left position nine vacant. The gap closed in four seconds. We will rejoin tomorrow, one place farther back, to test whether nine behaves differently under local occupation. Preliminary data suggest it does not. Nothing in this colony has ever looked back.
