Concrete, Phonetic, Simultaneous, Semaphore Poems 1970/71 (2006)
From the typewriter bombers to the flag poem Callaghan’s early works on paper are either an anti-war protest or a homage to conceptual art movements. Visual poetics – the word or the semaphore alphabet is also the image.
Earthworks 1972-1979
Earthworks produced some of the most iconic images of political activism in the 1970s, including ‘Give Frazer the Razor’. Posted up at night around Sydney these posters helped politicize a generation of Australian youth.
Michael Callaghan Survey Show - Life and Death 2006
Callaghan’s fascination with cultural imagery around death, focused sharply by his personal battle with mortality were the impetus for this series. Part self-portrait and completely a defiant putting face to death in an explosion of colour.
Michael Callaghan Torture Memo 2010
A deft visual communicator with a penchant for satire, this work was a culmination of Callaghan’s artistic and political concerns, crystallising its themes and demonstrating his continued relevance to the Australian cultural landscape.
Redback Graphix 1979-1994
Redback’s posters – their majestic scale, luscious surfaces, lolly-like brightness – belong to a historically specific moment. It may have been brief in duration but wow was it volcanic in force.
Redback Graphix 1995-2002
Callaghan translated the graphic style developed during his career to the off-set medium producing vibrant, visually stimulating one off designs with his usual typographical and visual style for a range of clients.
Tribute Show
The exhibition focus was on the international corporations and the middlemen, of private and government, who foster and profit from the international trade in arms.