The legacies of our ancient Ancestors are written in the language of the landscape. To be on Country, to sit and learn this language is a lifelong journey – it can speak to us in many ways. It is the fleeting moments, as wind brushes across your skin and you notice subtle shifts in direction and feeling. It is the countless evenings spent stargazing, traversing constellations, coming to understand that what is up is down; hours standing on shorelines observing the ebb and flow of changing tides; days sitting among immovable natural formations etched with stories told since time immemorial. To understand the language of the landscape is to understand ourselves and our place within it.

Living and working on Badhu (Mulgrave Island), Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait), Alick Tipoti’s daily life as a Saltwater person and practicing artist reflects an embodiment of this process. Since the 1990s, Tipoti has produced a significant body of work centred primarily in printmaking, painting and mask making, with recent explorations in large-scale sculpture and installation. His work is often accompanied by Ailan Kastom (Island Custom) songs, dances, and chants – performance remains critical to Tipoti’s expression of Zenadth Kes culture.

Presenting immersive, multidisciplinary experiences, Tipoti challenges distinctions between forms – simultaneously positioning the performance as object, and object as performance. Each movement to the beating drum and harrowing chants is an embodied interpretation of the intricate linework and patterning carved into the surface of the object. In that same moment, static objects come to life with the gesture of each movement. To appreciate one is to appreciate the other – they are one and the same. While each may exist momentarily as an individual object or performance, they have been realised by Tipoti as vessels to communicate the strength and continuum of living song, story and visual culture in the Zenadth Kes.

A recurring motif in Tipoti’s practice, Dhangal Madhubal (2021) presents three large-scale forms that offer an intimate insight into the complex interplay between hunter, dhangal (dugong) and moon. Rendered in fibreglass, the forms reference wooden or stone madhubal (charms) carved by hunters in the shape of dhangal. After studying grazing locations of the dhangal, the hunter will build a nath (hunting platform) in shallow waters, to coincide with certain phases of the moon. (1) Associated with ‘island magic’, madhubal are hollowed, fitted with sea grass collected from the mouth of previous kills and installed beneath the nath to attract the dhangal. Only the hunter can truly grasp the intimacy of this practice. Immersive in scale, Dhangal Madhubal invites the viewer to navigate the space between each form, offering a point of departure to understand and appreciate the continuation of Zenadth Kes cultural practices.

Positioned facing north-west, Baydham (2021) is a sculptural work that references Tipoti’s star constellation, the star shark. It is linked to Zenadth Kes knowledge of the intrinsic relationship between land, sea and sky: when the Meriam Mir and Kala Lagaw Ya people see the ‘nose’ star dipping to meet the horizon, this signals the beginning of kuki (monsoon). Unwavering, Zugubaw Baydham (shark constellation) has followed this same pattern since time immemorial. A knowledge of this ancient pattern and its parallels on land and sea has presented Tipoti with an opportunity to compose and choreograph a new Zugubaw Baydham (2021), performed for the first time publicly for the purposes of this exhibition. This is the innovation of Tipoti’s practice – pushing the boundaries of expression, while remaining grounded in a reverence of Zenadth Kes culture, history and identity.

          (1) Alick Tipoti, email to the author, 11 Jan 2021.