Jasmine Togo-Brisby

Jasmine Togo-Brisby (born 1982) is a South Sea Islander artist known for her sculpture installations and portrait photographs.[1][2] She currently resides in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and is one of few artists that centres Pacific slave labour as the focus of her practice.[2]

Early life

Togo-Brisby was born in 1982 in Queensland, Australia. The early years of her life were spent in Tweed Heads, Northern New South Wales and then later in Townsville and Mackay, Queensland. She traces her ancestral lineage to the islands of Ambae and Santo that make up the Pacific nation Vanuatu.[3][4][5]

Her first memories of looking at South Sea archives is how her interest in photography began. South Sea Island culture developed out of these documented images. On an annual basis she remembers as a child, her community searching through archives to piece together their history and locate their ancestors. Togo-Brisby's multidisciplinary art practice is described as being "personally motivated" by curator, Gordon-Smith.[6][7] Togo-Brisby says:

Through my work I’m trying to create another space for our ancestors to exist within.[8]

Subsequent to completing High School, TogoBrisby relocated to Brisbane in 2012 Togo-Brisby and completed a Diploma of Visual Art at the Southbank Institute of Technology. She went on to study a Bachelor Degree (Honours), in Fine Art at Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and Griffith University, Southbank, Brisbane completing in 2017. In 2019 she studied for a Masters in Fine Art also at Massey University.[5][7][9]

Career

Togo-Brisby is best known for her exploration of South Sea Islanders and the historical to present-day impact slavery has had on her community.[10]

Togo-Brisby's sculpture Bittersweet (2013–2015) was first exhibited in Aotearoa at Te Uru, curated by Ioana Gordon-Smith.[11] The catalyst for this work was the uncovering of a large scale unmarked burial ground on what was previously a plantation in the northeastern state of Queensland in Australia. The work is described: "Installed on a plinth in a dark gallery, a pile of skulls cast in unrefined sugar and resin glisten under the gallery lights, giving off a sickly-sweet smell."[2][6]

Her exhibition Dear Mrs Wunderlich (2020), alludes to the unearthing of records she had been investigating that authenticate the blackbirding[lower-alpha 1] of her great-great-grandmother, who became the legal property of the Wunderlich family in the 1800s.[7][12]

She opened her first major solo exhibition Hom Swit Hom (2022) at Artspace Mackay in Mackay, Queensland.[13] Togo-Brisby says:

Mackay has the largest population of Australian South Sea Islanders, so this is a monumental exhibition for me and something that has been a long time coming.[13]

Solo exhibitions

2013

  • Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane[7]

2019

  • Birds of Passage, Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin[7]
  • Adrift, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington[7]

2020

  • Dear Mrs Wunderlich Page Galleries[7]
  • If these walls could talk, they'd tell you my name, Courtenay Place Park Light Boxes, Wellington[7]
  • From Bones and Bellies, CoCa, Christchurch[7]

2022

  • Hom Swit Hom Artspace Mackay, Queensland, Australia[13]

Group exhibitions

2013

  • Head & Sole, Logan Art Gallery, Logan Central, Queensland, Australia[7]
  • Echoes ASSI 150, The Centre Beaudesert, Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia[7]
  • Memories from a Forgotten People: 150 Years of Australian South Sea Islander, State Library of Queensland, Southbank, Australia[7]
  • Journey Blong Yumi: Australian South Sea Islander, Logan Art Gallery, Logan Central, Queensland, Australia[12]

2014

  • DNA: Deadly Nui Art, Black Dot Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Artists: Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Tony Tai, Damien Shen, Mariaa Randall, Francis Tapueluelu, Chanel Winarti, and Lily Aitui Laita[14]

2015

  • Fish hooks & Moving Trees (touring exhibition), BEMAC, Brisbane + Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia[7]
  • From here to there (touring exhibition), Pine Rivers Museum + Noosa Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia[7][15]

2016

  • Influx (touring exhibition), St Paul Street Gallery, Auckland + Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, Wellington[7][16]
  • Handle with Care, Te Uru, Auckland[7][17]
  • Fifty Shades of Blak, Black Dot Gallery, Victoria, Australia[7]
  • Vai Niu Wai Niu Coconut Water, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia[7]

2017

  • Colonial Sugar - Tracey Moffat & Jasmine Togo-Brisby, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington[7]

2018

2019

  • Tākiri: An Unfurling, New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland[18]
  • Beyond Kapene Kuku/Captain Cook, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington[7]
  • Auckland Art Fair, The Cloud, Queens Wharf, Auckland[7]
  • Plantation Voices: Contemporary conversations with Australian South Sea Islanders, State Library of Queensland, Australia[8]

2020

2022

Awards and residencies

Footnotes
  1. Blackbirding was a commonly used colloquial term for the Pacific slave trade.

References
  1. "Jasmine Togo-Brisby – Overview". Page Galleries. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  2. "City Gallery Wellington". citygallery.org.nz. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  3. "Jasmine Togo-Brisby". Auckland Art Gallery.
  4. Teaiwa, Katerina (2021). "About the Artist: Jasmine Togo-Brisby". The Contemporary Pacific. 33 (2): vii–xv. doi:10.1353/cp.2021.0032. hdl:10125/105256. ISSN 1527-9464. S2CID 245337725.
  5. Tautai (March 2019). "Jasmine Togo-Brisby" (PDF). Jasmine Togo-Brisby.
  6. Handle With Care (PDF)
  7. "Jasmine Togo-Brisby – Biography". Page Galleries. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  8. "The past is ahead, don't look back". State Library Of Queensland. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  9. "Dunedin School of Art Residency". Creative New Zealand.
  10. "femisphere.co.nz". femisphere.co.nz. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  11. "Jasmine Togo-Brisby: Bitter Sweet". Te Uru. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  12. "Journey Blong Yumi opens at Logan Art Gallery". State Library Of Queensland. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  13. "Human skulls made of sugar part of exhibition exploring Australia's dark and forgotten slave trade". ABC News. 31 January 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  14. Tunstall, Elizabeth Dori. "Melbourne Fringe review: DNA (Deadly Nui Art) at Blak Dot Gallery". The Conversation. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  15. "From here and there". www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  16. Tonga, Ane; St Paul St Gallery; Pataka Porirua Museum of Arts and Cultures; Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust (2016). Influx. Auckland: Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust. ISBN 978-0-473-36895-1. OCLC 1038416076.
  17. Gordon-Smith, Ioana; Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery (2016). Handle with care. [Jasmine Togo-Brisby & Andrew Ananda Voogel]. Auckland: Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery. OCLC 1046615189.
  18. "Late Night: Tākiri, An Unfurling". Maritime Museum New Zealand. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  19. "Māori and Pacific creatives weave art and tech together for digital exhibition -". Massey University. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  20. "Declaration: A Pacific Feminist Agenda". Auckland Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
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