8 May - 6 June 2020

Tamika Grant-IramuFragments: a virtual environment

A Redland Art Gallery and Onespace exhibition partnership

I meet Tamika Grant-Iramu (b. 1995) at Onespace Gallery under the strange new circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and, along with the rest of the world, we are both a little outside our comfort zones. Tamika is at an early stage of a career with great promise, and this exhibition of editioned prints was developed to hang in the airy and voluminous spaces within the Redland Art Gallery in Cleveland. Instead of an opening with at least one hundred people—friends, family and industry supporters—it is just Tamika, myself and videographer Louis Lim at OneSpace Gallery, where we are “in conversation” on video, with one large linocut pinned to the wall behind. The online destination of this work may be the strangest exhibition launch she will experience.

And yet, she is adaptable and resilient. There are echoes of the fragmentary nature of this time in her exhibition, which brings together detail of the places she has travelled in recent years. What dominates every one of these works is her carved printed line, shape and mesmerising pattern, carrying the indelible stamp of her Torres Strait Islander connections.

She remembers making art since she was seven years old, with drawing a constant presence. She relays how during her second year at the Queensland College of Art, despite initially intending to do a painting major, printmaking suddenly became more compelling to her. “There was a range of different techniques and practices, and with the use of prints in everyday life, there was an adaptability about the medium that allowed me to explore diverse moods and aesthetics. I was really drawn to that.” In her final year, she dived in, making linocut prints her focus. “I didn’t even know what Torres Strait Islander printmaking was until one lesson when my lecturer asked, ‘Do you have Islander heritage?’ noting that my prints were similar to Torres Strait Islander artists such as Brian Robinson, Dennis Nona and Alick Tipoti. I realised I was naturally doing something that Torres Strait Islanders had been doing for a long time, ever since the adaption of traditional turtle shell carving was translated to relief print. I had the opportunity to meet a few of these artists at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair last year.”

Image (above): Tamika Grant-Iramur, Fragments of Redlands, 2019-20, 4 block Vinyl-cut on Hahnemühle paper, Edition of 2AP + 1-10 of 10 available. Paper Size: 51 x 77cm. Image Size: 44 x 75cm. Photo: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.

Image (above): Tamika Grant-Iramur, Fragments of Ta Prohm: restoration, 2018-20, 3 block vinyl-cut panel on Hahnemühle paper, Edition of 2AP + 1-5 of 5 available. Paper Size: 199.5 x 84.8cm. Image Size: 199.5 x 84.8cm. Photo: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.

Dr. Louise Martin-Chew

Tamika was born in Brisbane, a long way from the Torres Strait, as was her father. “Through my work I am trying to find ways to embrace this culture. I am challenged to create new stories that are true to me. I haven’t been taught stories by my parents and grandparents, so I explore and create personal symbolism and motifs. Throughout my practice, I represent this heritage in an abstract way.”

In this regard, the theme of travel that Tamika has selected is especially poignant. Fragments draws together detailed depictions of natural environments in three places—Haugesund in Norway; Ta Prohm in Cambodia; and Redland city, located just outside Brisbane. In her travels to each of these places, she has embedded herself in the detail of the natural world. In Norway, Tamika was impressed by the cold country and beauty of the fjords, which are evoked in her wildflowers and dramatic floral silhouettes. In Ta Prohm, she was drawn to the tangle of trees that join ancient buildings, the natural and the manmade knitted together over time. And in Redlands, she was inspired by the area’s contrasts—the coastal pandanus and dry country eucalypts. Her mark-making adds a mesmerising quality to highly familiar environments, with the spiky pandanus drawing memories of Nona’s legendary witches, and the eucalyptus created like a cosmos full of lightning, darkness and the unknown—an exotic world extending the tree’s familiar shape and form.

Tamika’s display method is unique. She installs prints in a never-ending narrative, with individual vignettes joined by being pinned together into wall-sized and organic shapes, as evidenced in the installation shots of this online exhibition. Her ambition is to express “memory and story, a work with no ending”. Accordingly, the places she takes us in Fragments: A Virtual Environment are all the more compelling at a time when we are confined not only to our own countries and cities but also to our homes. In this work, our imagination is unleashed.

Image (cover): Tamika Grant-Iramu, Carving Memories: continued line, continued place (detail - middle and right pieces), 2019, Vinyl-cut on Hahnemühle paper, Triptych - Edition of 2AP + 1-3 of 3 available & Edition of 1-3 of 3 available for each section. Middle piece: 200 x 80cm. Right piece: 160 x 80cm. Photo: Carl Warner. Coutesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.

Image (above): Tamika Grant-Iramu, 2020. Photo: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.

Born (1995) and raised in Brisbane, Tamika graduated from the

Queensland College of Art (Gri th University) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in

2017, majoring in Interdisciplinary Print Media. Tamika con nues to build her

body of work with a focus on Torres Strait Islander printmaking techniques

and storytelling aesthetics.

Her work shot to prominence in 2018 as one of the nalists for the pres gious

2018 ‘Telstra Na onal Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards’ (NATSIAA).

Grant-Iramu was selected among the 66 works drawn from 308 entries to

be unveiled in the NATSIAA exhibi on at the Museum and Art Gallery of the

Northern Territory (MAGNT). Her work engages with both Western and non-

Western print communi es to merge these two in uences. Inspired by the

immediate environment, her prac ce focuses on minute areas of nature/

ora within urban ecosystems. From these observa ons and through a strong

print aesthe c, she creates a diverse range of organic pa erns and forms. The

physicality of carving linocut not only allows her to realise these artworks, it

has also revealed a dis nct connec on to her Torres Strait Islander heritage.

Some of Tamika’s recent achievements include:

2019 – CREATIVEMOVE: commissioned artist – Herston Hospital STARS public art project

2019 – ARTNOW FNQ 2019 – Cairns Regional Art Gallery Exhibition

2019 – CIAF – Onespace feature artist at CIAF 2019 (July)

2019 – Australia Council Grant Recipient (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Panel)

2019 – Haugensund International Festival for Artistic Relief Print at the Haugensund Art Gallery, Norway

2019 – Blaklash Indigenous Arts Program 2019 – Brisbane City Council

2018 – Representation with Onespace Gallery (December onwards)

2018 – Finalist in the 35th Telstra NATSIAA – Works on Paper Award (2018, August)

Kindly supported by

onespacegallery.com.au Gallery Directors, John Stafford and Jodie Cox

4/349 Montague Road john@onespacegallery.com.au West End QLD 4101 jodie@onespacegallery.com.au Australia +61 7 3846 0642 Gallery Manager, Alicia Hollier Wed to Fri: 10am–6pm alicia@onespacegallery.com.au Sat: 11am–5pm Gallery Communications, Taylor Hall taylor@onespacegallery.com.au

Onespace Gallery and Tamika Grant-Iramu would like to thank: Emma Bain, Amy Wison and the Redland Art Gallery team; Dr. Louise Martin-Chew; Louis Lim; Evie Franzidis and James Butcher.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands, winds and waters on which this gallery stands. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and future.

Co-presented with