Lisa Waup is a mixed-cultural First Nations multidisciplinary artist, curator and mother born in Narrm (Melbourne). Her practice spans diverse media, including printmaking, weaving, photography, sculpture, fashion and digital art.
Lisa joins Wendy on Big Brekky to have a chat to talk about a new exhibition, Current: Gail Mabo, Lisa Waup, Dominic White which is showing at McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery from the 29th of July, through to the 19th of November.
Through strong connections to symbology and materiality, her work connects her to family, Country, history and story, exploring personal experiences and a broader historical narrative.
Her work eloquently illustrates her life’s journey through connection, highlights the importance of tracing lost, stolen and hidden history, ancestral relationships, Country, motherhood, and time which are woven into stories of her past, present and future into contemporary forms.
The pathbreaking exhibition, Current: Gail Mabo, Lisa Waup, Dominic White, at McClelland, will showcase new and recent work by three First Nations artists, developed with a mentorship program for three emerging First Nations curators, and a major catalogue featuring First Nations writers.
The three artists, Gail Mabo (Meriam), Lisa Waup (Gunditjmara/Torres Strait Islands), and Dominic White (Palawa/Trawlwoolway), are known for practices which affirm their powerful connection to their lands, waters and ancestors.
The exhibition title, Current, refers at once to the vital contemporary practices of these three multidisciplinary artists, and also to the movement in the passages of water along the eastern coast of Australia which connect the land and people of Zenadh Kes/Torres Strait of the far north and Lutruwita/Tasmania in the south.
McClelland director, Lisa Byrne, describes how Current will support and celebrate three First Nations artists' practices which are related in thematic concerns and material experimentation.
“The project aims to give First Nations artists, writers and emerging curators valuable opportunities to develop their practice, and will offer skills-building, promotion and recognition for First Nations arts practitioners.
It will contribute to McClelland’s central mission to promote public understanding and enjoyment of Australian, modern and contemporary art, while foregrounding opportunities for First Nations artists and self-determination. The artists will exhibit work made between 2016 and 2023, along with newly commissioned works.”