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NorthSite contemporary arts

Billy Missi

Billy Missi, 1970–2012, was from Mabuaig Island in the Torres Strait. His work focused on family and cultural protocols and the artist’s contemporary life experiences growing up in Zenadh-Kes.

Missi is known as one of the leading printmakers of this region, having exhibited widely and achieved both national and international acclaim. He comes from a respected family of art practitioners and choreographers, from the tribes of Wagedagam, Geomu and Panai in Malu Lilgal (Western Torres Strait). His work is based on reasons for survival.

He states: “The Torres Strait has a complex history and culture, vegetation and ecosystems that work with the phases of the moon, so the livelihood of people in that region is based on, and strongly connected with the natural surroundings, hunting and gathering, identifying foods. It’s why our people have continued to pass on traditional stories and cultural traditions.”

PADHA KA MARNGI (ARRIVING FOR THE NEST), 2008, LINOPRINT, EDITION OF 50

In the uninhabited little Isles in the Torres Strait, a lot of activity happens whether on the reefs, shores, or inside their thick rainforests. This image depicts a group of goannas arriving upon a Green Turtle’s nest. Sometimes they even get to the nests before the hunting parties. It is traditional to gather the exotic eggs as a food source and for ceremonies.

This is one of many everyday activities that occur in the vast seascape environment within the Maluilgal (Western Torres Strait) waterway.

KARKURAN PURIKA (LAYING EGGS), 2008, LINOPRINT, EDITION OF 50

This image expresses one of the natural activities that happen during certain phases of the moon on uninhabited isles around our homeland, the Maluilgal (Western Torres Strait) waterway.

Brian Robinson

Spanning printmaking, sculpture and public art, Robinson’s artistic practice originates with influence of his Melanesian/Torres Strait heritage and disseminates globally from Cairns. His graphic style fuses reality and fantasy, as he combines styles and influences from the cannons of art history, popular culture and Torres Strait cultural motifs, objects and activity. Much of Robinson’s art reflects the tropical marine environment surrounding Waiben (Thursday Island). It is an essential part of his life and culture, imbued with the customs, traditions and lifestyles of Torres Strait Island people. The animals from ancestral stories and their presence today are an integral feature of Robinson’s work.

MALU MANDALA II, 2011, LINOCUT EDITION OF 30

People in most communities belong to clan groups associated with one particular augud or totem. Some clans had more than one totem. Clan members lived in the one village or in a section of a large village on an island. An augud was not restricted to any one island and this was of great assistance when trading between islands because, as was the case with inter-island marriage links, people with a certain augud would be received with hospitality on another island if members of the same totem lived there. Totems fell into two groups: those named after living things found on the land, koi augud, meaning great totem, and those named after living things in the sea, mugi augud, meaning small totem.

Joel Sam

Joel Sam’s family lives in Bamaga and originates from Saibai Island. Born on Thursday Island in 1977, he currently lives in Cairns, having finished his art studies with a Diploma of Art from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Visual Arts Course at the Tropical North Queensland TAFE. Sam is an experienced pearl shell carver and linocut printmaker.

His artworks are inspired by his culture, and the images are of sea creatures that live in and around the Torres Strait, such as turtles, squid, the fish of the reef and the shells and corals of the Coral Sea.

GUB (FOUR WINDS OF ZENADH-KES), 2011, LINOCUT, EDITION OF 30

This print represents the four winds of Zenadh-Kes (the Torres Strait), where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean: Naigai (North), Zey (South), Sager (South-East), and Kuki (North-West). The winds are depicted being blown out of the mouth of the spirit god Marrkai.

BU (TRUMPET SHELL), 2011, LINOCUT, EDITION OF 30

This shell represents the island telephone. In the old days the shell was used by chiefs to put a call out to the men to prepare for a tribal battle. In more modern times it is used for ceremonial and dancing purposes. The patterned sections of this print represent the breakers (waves) coming towards the islands, which are protected by the reef where the shell is found.

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