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Brian Robinson

BRIAN ROBINSON | 'Handline Nguruapi Wharf' | Linocut

BRIAN ROBINSON | 'Handline Nguruapi Wharf' | Linocut

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Edition

Linocut printed in black ink from one block

Edition of 40, 2011

Published by Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking

Image size: 520 x 380 mm 

Paper size: 800 x 600 mm

Paper type: BFK  Rives white 300 GSM

Ink type: Heidelberg Pantone black

Editioning printer: Kate Zizys

Artist: Brian Robinson
Language: Kala lagaw ya

Brian Robinson is a multi-skilled contemporary artist, whose practice includes painting, printmaking, sculpture and design. The graphic style in his practice combines his Torres Strait Islander heritage with a strong passion for experimentation, both in theoretical approach and medium, as well as a crossing of the boundaries between reality and fantasy. The results combine styles as diverse as graffiti art through to intricate relief carvings and construction sculpture echoing images of Torres Strait cultural motifs, objects and activity. Robinson’s art reflects the tropical marine environment surrounding Waiben (Thursday Island) and the inhabitants of that environment. 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.

Robinson’s sculptural practice stems from the discipline of constructivism, a style of sculpture that emerged in the early twentieth century based on carefully structured modules that allow for intricate, and in some cases infinite, patterns of repetition, sometimes used to create limitless, basically planar, screen-like formations, and sometimes employed to make more multi-dimensional structures. Surface treatments for Robinson’s sculptural works have included coconut-leaf matting, split bamboo, cowrie shells, feathers, lace, photographic prints and linocuts on paper.

His approach to printmaking in both etching and linocut is linear in composition and appearance. These prints illustrate Robinson’s depth of connection to heritage paired with his aesthetic and intellectual exploration of Western art iconography in relation and connection to Torres Strait culture.

Robinson's work has contributed significantly to the environs of Cairns, his home for two decades, through a number of major public art installations including the signature five stainless steel woven fish sculptures and fountain installed on the Cairns Esplanade in 2003. His work has been widely collected both privately and through major institutions both in Australia and overseas. From September 2010 Robinson undertook a 12-month Artist in Residence at Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking Studio located in Cairns, developing an impressive body of new works in etching and linocut.A pivotal factor in the Islanders’ subsistence lifestyle was mastery at fishing using the various implements and tools on hand. Handline, Ngurupai wharf depicts one such method – the handline. Traditionally fishing was done from the shores or around the reefs either by the use of fishing lines made from vine or vegetable fibre, with hooks fashioned from turtle shell, or with spears. In the Eastern Islands, where large schools of sardines are found along the shoreline, a bamboo scoop (weres) was used.

 "This print is one in a series of works that looks at the juxtaposition of Torres Strait lifestyle with motifs and mythology from classical Renaissance art."

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