Alick Tipoti – Collection In Focus Exhibition at Cairns Art Gallery
In 2015 the Cairns Art Gallery mounted the first major survey exhibition of Torres Strait Islander artist, Alick Tipoti. Zugubal: Ancestor Spirits, was the first exhibition to consider how Zenadh Kes rock art inspires Tipoti’s arts practice and a generation of Torres Strait Islander artists.
Alick Tipoti was born in 1975 on Waiben (Thursday Island) in Maluilgal (Western Torres Strait). His traditional name is Zugub and he is an activist of the Kala Lagaw Ya people from Badu Island. Both his parents came from Badu (Mulgrave Island), where Alick lived as a child, learning from his father and grandfather who were both skilled craftsmen and artists.
Tipoti works across a range of media, including linocut printmaking, sculpture, and choreographing and performance of traditional Zenadh Kes dances and songs. His works demonstrate the connections and powerful connectivity between these artforms and celestial symbolism as a powerful sign of that connectivity.
This current exhibition includes works from the Gallery’s Collection, with major works dating back to 2006 that are inspired by Zenadh Kes cosmology and rock art. The three Kisay (moon) 2015 prints celebrate and record the spiritual presence of moonlight, with Kisay the maternal figure who protects Zenadh Kes at night. Together Kisay Girer, Kisay Mabayg and Kisay Dhanga, depict how the spiritual connection to Kisay is traditionally celebrated in songs, chants, stories and dance which have been handed down for countless generations. Zugubal dancers still perform the Kisay dance, with the warup (drum) providing the beat for this happy dance.
Alick Tipoti is a major Australian artist and a leading figure in the contemporary Torres Strait Islander art movement which began in the mid-1990s. His work is represented in major public and private collections in Australia and overseas and he has exhibited extensively.
Exhibition Runs: 7th September – 3rd November 2024
Entry: Free Entry
For more information please visit the Cairns Art Gallery website.
Please check directly with the Cairns Art Gallery for opening hours on Public Holidays.
Image: Alick TIPOTI, Born 1967, Kisay Girer 2014, vinylcut, hand coloured, 170 x 70 cm, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Alick Tipoti, 2015, photo: Michael Marzik.
