Intertwined

Event status:
CLOSED
Dates:
14 October – 26 November 2017
Location:

Koorie Heritage Trust, Gallery 1, Level 1, Yarra Building, Federation Square Melbourne.

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A new commission from Lisa Waup with feather and fibre works from the Koorie Heritage Trust Collection.

Intertwined shares a selection of feather and fibre works from the Koorie Heritage Trust collection. This exhibition pays tribute to the diversity of fibre craft practices across South-East Australia, with artefacts that have never been exhibited before, as well significant works from senior weavers and artists.

Uniting the works is a new commission from Gunditjmara and Torres Strait Islander artist Lisa Waup, who has reflected on these important items from the Koorie Heritage Trust collection and contributed a new work to be exhibited alongside the collection items. The work utilizes a unique mixture of materials including emu and galah feathers, historic shipping rope, alpaca wool, pandanus, and natural fibres.

Intertwined celebrates traditional and contemporary weaving and fibre craft practices that existed pre-invasion, and that have continued to evolve over the past 200 years. The works shown span periods of time when Aboriginal people were banned from practicing traditional material culture, to the mission era where weaving and fibre crafts were created for sale to earn a wage, through to today; where contemporary weaving and fibre craft practices reflect a re-claiming of Indigenous techniques, and empowerment of Indigenous people through creative and cultural practices.

Lisa Waup was separated from her Gunditjmara and Torres Strait Islander family at a young age and has developed a distinctive weaving practice usually made of many complex layers. She often uses stitching, pieces or found objects that symbolise reattaching layers of history and story to reconnect to her heritage. Lisa received a Bachelor of Arts from RMIT University and lectured in photography and printmaking at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. Lisa was a finalist in the 2017 and 2016 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards (NATSIAA).