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NAVIGATE: The Exhibition Prints | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 The real challenge has come since their return to their island homes where lack of access to sophisticated printing equipment and technical expertise has meant that precious years have been waisted attempting to persuade local councils to support the formation of printing facilities within their own communities. Deciding whether to relocate permanently to the mainland or face expensive travel costs incurred by living at home and travelling elsewhere to produce their art has been a most difficult dilemma.20 
Dennis Nona, Alec Tipoti, Andrew Williams, Billy Missi, David Bosun and Victor Motlop and others have demonstrated a mastery in their traditionally derived carving skills and have created an art movement based on incising in to linoleum and printing editions on to archival paper. Stylistically their work is characterised by fine incision based on traditional patterning and the introduction of colour by a method that has been referred to until recently as ‘a la poupe’. This rainbowing or rippling effect is created by lifting the printed image and reapplying coloured ink to the plate while the trailing edge of the paper is still caught in the printing roller. By lowering the print exactly in register and applying pressure for a second time with the back of the hand or a spoon just the right amount of coloured ink is applied to the black areas highlighted. This technique, perfected by these artists has been recently renamed Kaidarral 21 which literally translates as the ‘spirit that creates ripples on the surface of the water’. Dennis Nona was not the first of the artists to graduate from the Cairns TAFE but he was arguably the most influential in the development of what has become the contemporary island narrative style. His creative breakthrough came to him during a moment of low confidence during the first year of his TAFE college course. In a recently taped interview he recalled that he wanted to convey more than tourist images of figurative fish and other sea creatures that dominated the work of his fellow students. In a dream he came to the realisation that he could place around a single print all the elements of a larger creation story. In this way he could relate an entire narrative in one single work of art with all of the characters and events linked by the clan patterning that bound the entire story to its place of origin. 22 Shortly thereafter Alec Tipoti and many others began employing the same idea into their own works and a new art movement was born. Since this breakthrough their intricate designs and strong figurative imagery have been employed to re-tell legends narrated by Elders about the creation of their environment; unique and exciting stories about their life before the islands were taken over by the European colonists, the missionaries and government officials. Many prints feature events of the past when fighting was glorified and warriors were held in high esteem. In several, legendary heroes appear along with their weapons, their distinctive headdresses and the masks, drums and objects associated with their ritual ceremonies and dances. 23 Images of head hunters recall days of cannibalism, of raiding parties attacking homes built in tree tops 24 and the sorcerers and witches which came to their final grief lying in the sea to become the islands and rocky outcrops that we see throughout the Western Torres Straits today. In other legends young men and women are transformed into sea creatures which retain their shape when changed in to hills and other features in the landscape. Many prints and artworks portray effigies, or ritual objects. The most powerful of these were traditionally reserved for initiation and secret religious practice with restrictions on who could possess or care for them.25 Others of a slightly less potent nature were used as protective charms like those that were placed in tobacco gardens to make the crop grow more quickly. Turtle charms were used in increase ceremonies or simply as personal talismans others used to ensure good hunting and the protection of the natural elements. Next NAVIGATE: Back to top | The Exhibition Prints | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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Contact Us @ sales@aboriginalartprints.com.au or Telephone (+61) 2 9332-1722 © Australian Art Print Network © AIATSIS & ATSIC from the Biographical database of Australian indigenous visual artists published by Discovery Media. |
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