If Pigs Could Fly (The Media Machine)

Description

Writes Callas, "This work deals with stereotypes of `Australian' identity, and at the same time examines Australian attitudes towards the media." In this witty and irreverent display of vivid, proliferating visuals, Callas transposes cartoon-like signs and icons from their original context to convey cultural significance. In a densely layered space, comic book figures of surfers and kangaroos collide with images that depict the apparatuses of vision, technology and media. This bombardment of electronic visual information, which functions as a charged idiogrammatic language, reaches its explosive end with the image of a passive television viewer.