"Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram - Vessel: water and sky (Nuit Blanche series)" 2022
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Sonja Carmichael
Born 1958, Brisbane, Turrbal and Yuggera Country.
Ngugi, Quandamooka. Lives and works in Mooloomba, Quandamooka Country.
Pronouns: she/her
Elisa Jane Carmichael
Born 1987, Brisbane, Turrbal and Yuggera Country.
Ngugi, Quandamooka. Lives and works in Brisbane, Turrbal and Yuggera Country, and Mooloomba, Quandamooka Country.
Pronouns: she/her
Freja Carmichael
Born 1984, Brisbane, Turrbal and Yuggera Country.
Ngugi, Quandamooka. Lives and works in Brisbane, Turrbal and Yuggera Country, and Mooloomba, Quandamooka Country.
Pronouns: she/her
"Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram - Vessel: water and sky (Nuit Blanche series)" 2022
cyanotype on cotton, ungaire, ghostnets, recycled materials, synthetic fibres, metal
Courtesy of the artists and Onespace Gallery, Brisbane.
Sonja, Elisa Jane, and Freja Carmichael’s large-scale cyanotypes Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram - Vessel: water and sky drape the high ceilings of UQ Art Museum, immersing visitors in a sea of love for their Saltwater Country. Working with collected marine debris, such as discarded netting and materials that wash ashore on Minjerribah/Terangeri (North Stradbroke Island), and recording these on cyanotypes, the artists highlight the responsibilities held to protect and care for their Quandamooka waters and kin.
Together, the three artworks connect Quandamooka intergenerational practices of weaving and dyeing, prominent throughout Sonja, Freja and Elisa Jane Carmichael’s respective practices. The matrilineal relationship between the artists as mother and daughters, and the relationship between people and Country, are humbly represented in the artworks. The title of the artwork Wagari: Dabiyil, Biram – Vessel: water and sky references weaving as a vessel for stories and experiences of the land, water, and sky of Quandamooka Country. It also gestures towards the image making process of cyanotype, where materials of the water and the ocean meet the material of sunlight, creating a deep blue colour, akin to the colour of the water.