Artist Statement

Duration 11′

“Bilderbuch für Ernst Will” is an electronic rendering of a form of proto-televisual iconomania: the creation of haphazardly sourced private pictorial scrap books or bilderbuch. Often intended for the surprise, delight and edifiction of grandchildren by grandparents, these books had the analogical potential to become flamboyant transmogrifigations of the detritus and sequestered oddments of the great age of print in the later half of the 19th century.

The fortuitous collocation of views of towns, voyages of exploration, catastrophes, battle scenes and royal portraits become mantic in the deft hands of an expert sniper such as Hans Christian Andersen or the unknown creator of Ernst Will’s picture book in war-time Vienna.   lux.org.uk/work/ernst-wills-picture-book

Image from scanlines.net

• Peter Callas (Aus, 1952). B.A.Honours, University of Sydney. Assistant film editor, sound editor, ABC Television, Sydney. 1980 Diploma in Art, Sydney College of the Arts. 1981-90 Lecturer for Video Art, City Art Institute, Sydney College of the Arts, NSW Institute of Techonology, Sydney; School of Art, University of Tasmania, Hobart. 1986 Video Artist in Residence, Marui Department Store, Tokyo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Callas