How Do You Get A Head On The Dole? poster 1982
The collections of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), the Wollongong Art Gallery (WAG) and the University of Wollongong (UOW) include a copy of a rare poster from the early 1980s which is simply titled How Do You Get A Head On The Dole? The multicoloured silkscreen print includes a small Revolt Posters logo on the lower left and a striking image of the head of then current Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser superimposed upon the body of a man holding in his outstretched hand a severed head. Across the severed head has been placed a label which reads: Unemployment. On his chest, the Fraser figure proudly wears a gold medallion bearing a large dollar sign. The colour of the skin tone in the poster is gaudy bright pink, whilst in the background we can see a pale blue sky and the outline of a mottled, yellow-green guillotine with brightly coloured blade. The design is a variant on engravings from the time of the French Revolution in 1789, when the aristocracy suffered at the hands of the people, and the reigning monarch Louis XVI was amongst those who lost their head at a public guillotining.
In the case of the 1982 poster, the roles have been reversed, with the revolution turned on its head, so to speak. Therein the ruling classes are making the cuts and inflicting pain upon the working classes. For this reason, the poster sought to help turn the tide, and stir individuals from their lethargy into engagement with public protest. That was the dream of a group of young Wollongong unemployed people at the time, as they considered the actions of Fraser, his government and bureaucracy, and the corporate sector.
Some mystery surrounds the precise origins of the How Do You Get A Head On The Dole? poster, and this is reflected in its individual description by the aforementioned collecting institutions. This blog, by bringing together the research of local community members and artists, attempts to uncover the history of the poster. What do we know so far? According to the National Gallery of Australia website, which contains a very brief description, their copy was acquired during 2019 and is a screenprint produced sometime during the 1980s. No further information is provided. The Wollongong Art Gallery provides a more fulsome description of their copy. It was purchased in 1987 and is listed as the 1984 product of Redback Graphix - a poster workshop and commercial operation that for a period from 1979 through the first half of the 1980s was based in Wollongong. Research by Phillippa Webb of the University of Wollongong Art Collection during 2013 and 2020 uncovered information provided by artist and print maker Michael Callaghan (1952-2012). He stated the following in regards to those involved in the creation of the poster, the date of its creation, and the relationship with his own Redback Graphix operation:
Jim Muir, Dennis Kennedy & Friends, Wollongong, Australia 1982. This is not a Redback Graphix poster. However, it was produced using the Redback Graphix workshop in Wollongong and Redback connections were involved.
Callaghan was a master print maker and chronicler and archivist of various poster collections. He kept records of his own works and those produced by groups he was associated with, such as the Earthworks Poster Collective at the Tin Shed, University of Sydney, from the mid' to late 1970s, and for Redback Graphix thereafter. His comments can be considered sound, if not definitive. In addition, information was obtained by Webb from local Wollongong artist and community activist Nick Southall. He worked with Redback Graphix during the early 1980s whilst it was operating in a building at Stewart Park, Wollongong. In 2013 Southall noted the following on the origin of the poster and its relationship to the Revolution Rock fund raising events held in Wollongong during 1981-2:
…. regarding the 'How Do You Get a Head on the Dole?' poster .... The poster bears the name Revolt Posters in reference to two benefit concerts organised under the banner 'Revolution Rock'. One gig was to raise money for the Wollongong Women's Centre and the other helped to pay for the poster. The poster was designed and printed by Dennis Kennedy and Jim Muir with assistance from Gregor [Cullen]. It was printed at Redback in 1982.
It seems likely that Jim Muir was the primary artist responsible for the work, with Dennis Kennedy one of the assistants on its production at the Redback Graphix workshop, working closely with Muir and resident print maker Gregor Cullen. Dennis and Southall shared a flat on Crown Street, just across from Muir in the same complex. All three were unemployed and active in the local Right to Work movement. According to Southall, writing in May 2020:
We were all deeply concerned about unemployment as a social issue. 1982 was a year of mass sackings in the local steel and coal industries, the Kemira sit-in strike, the storming of Federal Parliament by Wollongong workers, and the Right to Work March from Wollongong to Sydney. They were major events that helped to provide the impetus for the formation of the Wollongong Out of Workers Union [WOW] early in 1983.
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| Dennis Kennedy, Illawarra Mercury, 4 December 1982. |
The How Do You Get A Head On The Dole? poster addresses significant political and social issues of the day. As noted above, it was produced at a time of the onset of large scale job losses in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. This resulted from a downturn in the steel industry and layoffs at BHP, Port Kembla. General manufacturing industries throughout the region were also affected. Antagonism towards the Prime Minister and his government was rife, especially when Frazer's infamous 'razor gang' of June 1981 slashed budget spending. This antipathy was long festering, beginning with the coup-like Dismissal of the Whitlam government back in 1975, and the election of the Fraser Liberal Coalition in 1977. At that stage, Wollongong-born print maker Michael Callaghan gave expression to this Left-wing opposition through his infamous Give Fraser the Razor poster, produced during 1977 by the Earthworks Poster Collective at the Tin Sheds facility, University of Sydney.
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| Michael Callaghan, Give Fraser the Razor, Earthworks Poster Collective, 1977. |
The cuts were still happening in 1981 when Muir, Kennedy and Southall were involved in local protests and related activities. Muir moved the iconography on from the razor to the guillotine in the production of his poster, with Kennedy working alongside him. The latter achieved fame during the early 1980s as guitarist with the Wollongong punk band Sunday Painters. They performed at one, or both, of the Revolution Rock benefit gigs. In 1982 they released their CD Something to Do.
Sadly, Kennedy passed away suddenly in 2015 whilst travelling in Malaysia. A photograph from one of the Revolution Rock benefit gigs, held in January 1981, survives. Jim Muir, who designed the poster under discussion, can be seen facing the camera on the far right of the picture.
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| Sunday Painters, Ironworkers Club, Wollongong, January 1981. Jim Muir is the bearded figure on the far right. Note the guillotine on stage to the left, behind the bass player. Source: Facebook. |
On the backstage area, to the left of the band, is the guillotine which was likely the inspiration for the one which featured in the poster. The guillotine was an element of revolutionary iconography which sat well with the Revolution Rock theme, the Revolt Posters label, and the anger felt by young people towards the government of the day. The above photograph is possibly of the initial fundraiser held for the Wollongong Women's Centre, with a second benefit aiming to raise funds to print the poster being held later that year or early the next, based on the references to the poster being printed during 1982. The poster makes a specific reference to the benefit concert through the inclusion of the guillotine. Some recording was made at the January 1981 benefit gig, including a song by local band Nik Nok Nar.
In 2018 the How Do You Get A Head On The Dole? poster was included in the Fresh Blood: Redback Graphix and its Aftermath exhibition curated by Stuart Bailey and Wendy Murray and held at the Casula Powerhouse Art Centre and the Sydney College of the Arts.
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| Fresh Blood exhibition, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 2018. |
Within the associated catalogue, Jim Muir is cited as designer and printer of the poster. Dennis Kennedy and Sharon Pusell are likewise identified as printer's assistants. Sharon worked at Redback Graphix in the early 1980s, though she has subsequently confirmed she did not work on the poster. During the 2018 exhibition it was displayed alongside Michael Callaghan's early Redback Graphix work If the unemployed are dole bludgers, what the fuck are the idle rich? from 1979, and a series of three recent posters by Wendy Murray. Both How do you get a head... and What the fuck... are obviously addressing a similar theme, namely the plight of the unemployed during the period 1979-1982. In 2020 Southall provided additional information in regard to the Muir poster:
The 'How Do You Get a Head on the Dole?' poster isn't a Redback. It was produced by Jim Muir, Dennis Kennedy & perhaps others, in Wollongong. It was produced in 1981 in the lead-up to the 'Revolution Rock' gig at the Iron Workers' Club. It may have been produced using the Redback Graphix workshop and Redback connections may have been involved, although Jim, who was the main artist involved, usually worked out of the Art Arena studio located in Wollongong's Central Chambers. I can only recollect seeing the name 'Revolt Posters' used on this work. Sometimes Jim would put his name on his other posters, or [they] would have no identification.
Little is publically known of the work of Jim Muir. He was active in the Illawarra during a late 70s and early 80s when community-based poster production was to the fore in association with local events and activism. He produced posters for Theatre South, the Wollongong Out of Workers Union and, off the cuff, with initiatives such as Revolt Posters. He rarely signed his work, though 'Jim' is present on some posters identified as by him. He preferred instead to work collaboratively and anonymously. As a result, much of what he produced likely exists in public and private collections unattributed. This blog may help to bring some of that work to the fore.
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References
Bailey, Stuart and Murray, Wendy, Fresh Blood: Redback Graphix and Its Aftermath [exhibition catalogue], Casula Powerhouse Art Centre and Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2018, 21p.
Humphries, Glenn, Wollongong band the Sunday Painters ahead of their time, Illawarra Mercury, 8 January 2015.
-----, Sunday Painters' guitarist Dennis Kennedy dead, Illawarra Mercury, 5 June 2015.
Southall, Nick, Punk: "Don't be told what you want, Don't be told what you need, Revolts Now - a multitude of possibilities [Blog], 2 February 2016.
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Acknowledgements
The information in this blog is based in large part on original research by Phillippa Webb and Nick Southall.
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Last updated: 19 May 2020
Michael Organ
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