Style combination · Contrasts

Rorke's Drift Linocut × Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Both pack a black linocut to the edges and grew from a teaching studio, but Rorke's Drift stacks Bible and history scenes in horizontal bands, while Torres Strait prints let sea beings and stars interlock in one field of minaral; pick bands to narrate in order, the open field to show a cosmos.

From the research on Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Mix them and make something Rorke's Drift Linocut Torres Strait Islander Linocut

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Torres Strait Islander Linocut, their arrangement from Rorke's Drift Linocut, the finish from Rorke's Drift Linocut. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Rorke's Drift Linocut Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Type from Rorke's Drift Linocut: Hand-lettering
Colour from Torres Strait Islander Linocut: Monochrome
Limited spot colours
Form from Torres Strait Islander Linocut: Stylised figuration
Abundant decoration
Composition from Rorke's Drift Linocut: Horror vacui
Sequential narrative
Surface from Rorke's Drift Linocut: Carved line

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Rorke's Drift Linocut

Light

Agbalumo; Rorke's Drift Linocut used Hand-cut title in the block and Hand-cut captions and slogans

Text · Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Relief prints by Torres Strait Islander artists of Zenadth Kes, which grew from an Indigenous visual art course at Cairns College of TAFE by 1991 and the Mualgau Minaral collective on Mua (Moa) Island. Dennis Nona, Billy Missi, Alick Tipoti, Brian Robinson and others carry island carving into lino: ancestral heroes, canoes, sharks, dugong and stars interlock across a surface packed with minaral, fine incised hatching and zigzags, cut as a black key block, often with added colour, some prints over two metres long, and Robinson also sets superheroes and pop-culture icons among the minaral.

Caveat; Torres Strait Islander Linocut used Printmaker's pencilled margin under the image and Artist's name cut into the block so it prints with the image

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Torres Strait Islander Linocut, with a counter-accent from Rorke's Drift Linocut. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Rorke's Drift Linocut Torres Strait Islander Linocut

#121212 ground · 39%
#f4f0e6 ink · 15%
#a5432a accent · 20%
#d9cfb8 accent · 15%
#1d4e7a accent · 11%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #121212;
  --ink: #f4f0e6;
  --accent-1: #a5432a;
  --accent-2: #d9cfb8;
  --accent-3: #1d4e7a;
  --font-display: "Agbalumo", cursive;
  --font-text: "Caveat", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Rorke's Drift Linocut: These prints are the work of named Black South African and Namibian artists, many still in copyright with the artists or their estates, made under apartheid at a Lutheran mission centre. Rankin and Hobbs call the 'typical' Rorke's Drift print a construct that the market pushed artists to comply with; the centre also made etchings, aquatints, colour relief prints and screenprints, so treat this banded black-and-white linocut as one face of a diverse school, not the whole of it. Borrow the system (hand-cut black-and-white relief, banded narrative, words in the block), not a particular print, a named artist's figures or Muafangejo's lettering hand. Do not label generated work 'naive' or 'tribal' African art: when Clement Greenberg judged Art South Africa Today in 1975, Rorke's Drift artists were displayed in a 'catch all' section for representational and 'naive' works. Do not invent Zulu or Kwanyama ritual, Christian scenes or struggle martyrs as decoration: picture the subject the brief supplies in its own community's terms. Never add an artist's signature, edition number or a Rorke's Drift or ELC inscription to generated work, and never present a generated image as a Rorke's Drift print.

Torres Strait Islander Linocut: These prints are the work of named Torres Strait Islander artists, most of them living and in copyright, and their stories, totems, constellations and minaral patterns belong to particular families, clans and islands of Zenadth Kes; Mariw Minaral, the title of Alick Tipoti's 2020–2023 exhibition, means spiritual patterns, and the hidden images within his patterns are secrets that protect sacred cultural information. Torres Strait Islanders are a distinct people from Aboriginal Australians: even the V&A files Nona's print under 'Australian Aboriginal' style, so do not label the work Aboriginal, 'tribal' or generically Pacific, or blend it with dot painting or other Oceanian traditions. Commission or license work from Islander artists and their art centres, such as Moa Arts (Ngalmun Lagau Minaral) on Mua, and follow Creative Australia's Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts. Borrow only the general method of a densely carved black relief, never a particular print, an artist's figures, a legend or a constellation story; never invent Zenadth Kes legends, masks, headdresses or minaral as decoration, never add an artist's signature, and never present a generated image as a Torres Strait Islander print.

The two styles

A black-and-cream, woodcut-style poster headed “GOOD WATER” shows four stacked scenes of villagers carrying water, working around wells, drinking, and tending crops beside round thatched houses. Decorative borders contain leaves, flowers, birds, fish, and wave patterns.

1962–1982 · Sub-Saharan Africa Rorke's Drift Linocut The prints of the Lutheran art centre that Swedish teachers Peder and Ulla Gowenius started at Ceza Hospital in 1962 and moved to Rorke's Drift in 1963: under apartheid, which denied Black South Africans formal fine-art education, the chief training ground for many Black artists. Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Charles Nkosi and others cut black-and-white linocuts of Bible stories, Zulu and Kwanyama history and daily life, often crowded into horizontal bands with every gap filled by figures, foliage and pattern. Muafangejo added titles, dedications and commentary in the print itself.

A black-and-cream woodcut-style poster reads “SALT PATHS” above four people paddling a long decorated canoe. Patterned waves surround seabirds, stars, a sun-like disk, a sea turtle, fish, a ray, and shells.

1991–present · Oceania Torres Strait Islander Linocut Relief prints by Torres Strait Islander artists of Zenadth Kes, which grew from an Indigenous visual art course at Cairns College of TAFE by 1991 and the Mualgau Minaral collective on Mua (Moa) Island. Dennis Nona, Billy Missi, Alick Tipoti, Brian Robinson and others carry island carving into lino: ancestral heroes, canoes, sharks, dugong and stars interlock across a surface packed with minaral, fine incised hatching and zigzags, cut as a black key block, often with added colour, some prints over two metres long, and Robinson also sets superheroes and pop-culture icons among the minaral.

More combinations

With Rorke's Drift Linocut

With Torres Strait Islander Linocut

Every style combination