Closed canoe cargo

Post-Plantation series 2018 by Australian South Sea Islander artist Jasmine Togo-Brisby presents three distinct portraiture images that span three generations of one family through mother, daughter and grand-daughter. Peculiarly they all adorn colonial sailing ships upon their heads in an ominous display. It is a customary practice of her Vanuatu relatives that recalls traumatic events. Togo-Brisby's light boxes examine the historical practice of 'blackbirding’, which was the practice of kidnapping Pacific Islanders and using them as forced labour, in particular on sugar and cotton plantations in Australia between 1863 and 1904. The artist is a descendant of this legacy: a fourth generation Australian South Sea Islander whose work examines the contemporary legacy and impact of this history upon those who trace their roots to New Zealand and Australia through the slave-diaspora. Togo-Brisby’ work engages the cultural memory and shared histories of plantation colonisation across the Pacific, her practice encompassing painting, early photographic techniques and processes, and sculpture.

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