Turn Stories into Art

Mas (Cushions) from Mer (Murray Islands) on exhibition at the NGV Australia gallery

The wonderful thing about travel is I can go and visit the local art gallery. Of course when you are in Melbourne you are spoiled for choice. I started off with the blockbuster Basquiat and Haring exhibition Crossing Lines at the NGV international and yesterday caught up with the NGV Australia.

There is always something to surprise me and this visit was no exception. I wandered through the main exhibitions astounded by Roger Kemp’s monumental paintings that looked like luminous stained glass windows, then on through the somewhat surreal photographs of Polixeni Papapetrou and Petrina Hicks.

What took my breath away though were simple cushions made from hessian sacks once used to carry potatoes, coffee and onions. Here was a vibrant bed of stacked Mas (cushions) telling the story of trading between the Torres Straits islanders and Papua New Guinea. The motifs were painted, sewn and embroidered by women of the Marep Pamle. This stack of cushions also references traditional fish traps where stones are stacked on top of each other to trap the fish.

These repurposed substrates reminds me that art can be made from anything and anywhere. This art is bold and unapologetic. It takes traditional motifs and stories and retells them in new and inventive ways. Suddenly the idea of trading between the islands is brought into focus. We are reminded of community and shared methods of creating, sitting together to retell stories and keep them alive for a new generation and audience.

Photograph taken from the exhibition at NGV Australia of Meriam life in the Torres Strait.