Curtain (1980), 4:00 mins, Sydney. Curtain is an early experimental work in which Callas’ physical presence is of central importance. In this work, close-ups of the artist’s face are intercut by a photograph of a night time streetscape illuminated by street lights. The filmed movement of transparent layers of lithographic film...
Double Trouble (1986), 5:23 mins, Tokyo. One of the earliest works made by Callas using a Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI) processor, a pioneering compositing and special effects system he utilised regularly from the mid 1980s to early 90s. The CVI was a hybrid of video and computing technologies which enabled...
East Meets West (Sandii & the Sunsetz), (1986), 3:37 mins, Tokyo Music video produced for Sandii and the Sunsetz. [Peter Callas]
I Would Have Run But I Had A Heavy Cold (1980), 15:00 mins, Sydney. In I Would Have Run But I Had A Heavy Cold I enter the water beside a pontoon on the Hawkesbury River near Sydney. As speedboats zoom by with skiers in trail I crawl out of the...
If Pigs Could Fly (The Media Machine), (1987), 4:20 mins, Sydney.
Image Music: Tim Donahue (1985) 4:43 mins, Tokyo. Image Music was the first piece I completed with the Fairlight CVI. It was made for American musician Tim Donahue, who was living in Tokyo and had invented a marvelous instrument which he called the “harp guitar”.The tape consists of impressions of the music...
Karkador (1986), 2:55 mins, Tokyo. Commissioned by Pioneer Laser Disk for a project titled “AV Cocktail” (representing the 5th anniversary of laser disk in 1996). Produced by Tyrell Corp, Tokyo with music by P-Model.
Kinema No Yoru (Film Night) (1986) 2:15 mins, Tokyo.
Kiru Umi No Yoni / Cutting Like the Ocean; A Didactic Document Version I, (1983), 21:53 mins, Tokyo.
Kiru Umi No Yoni/Cutting Like the Ocean; A Didactic Document, Version II, (1986), 21:53 mins, Tokyo.
Kommunication (1986) 4:28 mins, Tokyo. The silhouettes of figures (drawn with the keys of a character generator) move in and around a series of television sets. A reworking of the imagery of Nin Nin utilising the Fairlight CVI and A/B rolls. [Peter Callas]
Lost in Translation (1994-99), 6:00 mins, Sydney/Brazil/Karlsruhe. “The double movement of displacement and circulation, loss and regeneration, constitutes a means of uncovering the disjunction between history and memory [in Latin America].” -[Charles Merewether]
Massage (1982), 7:00 mins, Sydney. In Massage (made with Dianne Lloyd) an actor (Geoff Miller) is being massaged with chromakey coloured grease paint. The images which appear within the chromakey areas are generic “media” images.1 1. Peter Callas from “Peter Callas: Initialising History, video works 1980-1999”
Museum of Contemporary Art Video (1991), 4:25 mins, Sydney. CVI imagery, Abekas A64 and Quantel Harry used to create a video art work commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Music by Derek Kreckler. [Peter Callas]
Neo-Geo: An American Purchase (1989), 9:17 mins, Sydney.
Night’s High Noon: An Anti-Terrain (1988), 7:26 mins, Sydney.
Nin Nin (1983) 3:00 mins, Hobart. The silhouettes of figures (drawn with the keys of a character generator) move in and around a series of television sets. [Peter Callas]
Powerhouse Logo (1988), 00:16 mins, Sydney. CVI imagery and Abekas A64 used to create a logo for the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, utilising objects from the museum’s collections.
Sailor (Takahashi Yukuhiro) (1986), 3:17 mins, Tokyo. Music video produced for Takahashi Yukuhiro of Yellow Magic Orchestra. [Peter Callas]
Singing Stone, 4:22 mins, Sydney, 1980 A hand clutches a oval stone which is drawn back and forth across a white surface in tight circular motions, grinding pigment. Muffled white noise and scraping sounds accompany the images. (Sound is an integral part of Callas’ practice, in which aural and visual elements...
Singing Stone, 4:22 mins, Sydney, 1980 A hand clutches an oval stone which is drawn back and forth across a white surface in tight circular motions, grinding pigment. Muffled white noise and scraping sounds accompany the images. (Sound is an integral part of Callas’ practice, in which aural and visual elements...
The Esthetics of Disappearance (1986), 5:55 mins, Tokyo. This work, which takes its title from Paul Virilio’s publication of the same name, explores notions of the cinematic in relation to recent global history, with particular focus on the role of the media in conveying information and events into the home via...
Transition Transmission (1980), 5:00 mins, Sydney. Recorded under the Iron Cove Bridge in Sydney, this tape contrasts the rhythmic sound the traffic makes on the bridge structure with the enigmatic appearance and disappearance (using the colouriser) of a figure in the landscape. 1 1. Peter Callas from “Peter Callas: Initialising History, video works 1980-1999”
Visions (1986), 4:45 mins, Tokyo. An eye blinks as it observes an empty space. We watch from within the eyeball as the detritus of vision gets mixed with imaginary figures which float in the air of the room. [Peter Callas]
U-matic Video, colour, sound, 6-mins In Griffith University Art Collection, Accession No 000816.01B
