ROBERT TOMMY PAU | 'Home-Made Bikes' Linocut Print |

Linocut printed in black ink from one block

Edition of 10, 2013

Paper size: 565 x 760mm

Printed by Elizabeth Hunter

Artwork story: Most of us could not afford bike so we would go to the dump and gather old bikes and parts and with intuition created a working bikes for ourselves. We would paint them change cog to make them go faster, extend form to make choppers. We used the bikes to go to Town, the front part of Thursday Island and to the movies where we would go in big groups like a bikie gang.

Tommy is a descendant of the Eastern Torres Strait Islands, Australian Aboriginal, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islander and Asia. He speaks Torres Strait Creole and Australian English. He was taught about the need to keep culture strong through cultural practice by his father. He has a strong commitment to keeping old traditions alive and believes that culture must remain true to the past and move with time to exist in the future. Tommy has considerable experience in the arts and his art forms of choice include printmaking, painting and sculpture.