# 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.

- Period: 1991–present
- Where: Oceania
- Origin: Torres Strait Islands (Zenadth Kes), Queensland, Australia. Islander students in the course in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual art at Cairns College of TAFE (Gimuy / Cairns) were cutting linocuts by 1991, the date of Dennis Nona's Headhunting and trading in Torres Strait Islands (National Gallery of Australia); the Mualgau Minaral Artist Cooperative (also called the Mualgau Minaral Artist Collective), which the V&A says Nona and fellow islanders formed in 1998, had a print studio at Kubin on Mua (Moa) Island by 2000 (National Gallery of Australia), with Billy Missi a founding member (DAAO) and Nona teaching there; David Bosun writes that Moa Arts (Ngalmun Lagau Minaral) started in 1999, and the Kubin art centre was incorporated in 2009; large-format prints were later editioned in Cairns, by master printmaker Theo Tremblay and at KickArts' Djumbunji Press, where Tremblay is credited on a 2007 Robinson print
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Zenadth Kes printmaking, Torres Strait printmaking, Torres Strait Islander print movement
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/torres-strait-linocut/

## Use it with care

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.

## How it works

- Carve the image into lino as a carver works wood or turtleshell and print it from one block, mostly in black ink, so every figure is drawn by the white incised line.
- Fill the figures and the ground around them with fine incised patterning, as Islander artists fill theirs with minaral: fine parallel hatching, dashes, chevrons and zigzag bands, changing the pattern rather than the tone so that pattern density defines each form and the surface ripples.
- Tell an ancestral story across the sheet: let heroes, canoes, sharks, turtles, dugong and stars interlock in a flat space with no perspective, and carry larger stories across paired sheets or a block two metres long.
- Hide and reveal figures by where the pattern stops: clear the hatching around a form, or let a second being surface from the pattern, so the viewer finds images within the image; Robinson tucks small pop-culture surprises, such as Pac-Man and stormtroopers, among the patterns.
- Add colour sparingly and by hand: dab it onto the inked block with a muslin pad or sponge, or print a second colour, rather than building a full-colour picture.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)
- [Organic flow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/organic-flow/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (defining)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (occasional)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (occasional)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (occasional)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Optical pattern](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/optical-pattern/) (characteristic)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (defining)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (defining)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (characteristic)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Generous white space, Ornament-free, Straight photography, Gloss & highlights, Fluorescent & neon, Agitational & persuasive

Palette: #121212, #f4f0e6, #1d4e7a, #a5432a, #d9d0bf

Typefaces: Printmaker's pencilled margin under the image: title, often in Kala Lagaw Ya (David Bosun, Lagau mabaigau malu aidal, 2002), edition number, signature and date; on Alick Tipoti's Zugubal (2006) 'A Tipoti 06 ©' is pencilled lower left, the title 'Zugubal' lower centre and the edition 9/35 lower right, Artist's name cut into the block so it prints with the image: on Tipoti's Zugubal (2006) 'Alick Tipoti' is printed in ink in the image, lower right, A quiet humanist sans such as Noto Sans for captions and wall text, spelling Kala Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mir names and titles exactly as the artists and art centres write them

Known for: Dennis Nona, Headhunting and trading in Torres Strait Islands (linocut printed in black and hand-coloured, 1991, Cairns College of TAFE; National Gallery of Australia, 93.2027): a canoe of five figures above hammerhead sharks; Brian Robinson, Feasting time (linocut in black ink, 1993, Cairns College of TAFE; National Gallery of Australia, 94.408); Alick Tipoti, Paths of my tradition (linocut in black ink with colour added by sponge, 1994, Cairns College of TAFE; National Gallery of Australia, 96.22); Robert Mast, Totemic Cycle (linocut printed in black ink from one block, hand-coloured, 1997, Cairns College of TAFE; National Gallery of Australia, 2003.4); Alick Tipoti, Kobupa Thoerapiese (Preparing for war) (linocut printed in black ink from one block, 1999, Canberra, 100.3 x 66.0 cm; National Gallery of Australia, 2002.31): an island warrior wearing a dhibal headdress from Saibai, above a row of skulls; Billy Missi (catalogued by the National Gallery of Australia as Billy Missy), Kubil Aw Danghalal (linocut printed in black ink from one block, hand-coloured, 2000, Kubin Village, Moa Island; National Gallery of Australia, 2000.589): four dugong swimming under the night sky; Victor Motlop, Seven blind brothers I & II (two-colour linocuts on two sheets, 2001, Mualgau Minaral Artist Collective, Mua Island; Art Gallery of South Australia, 20027G65); David Bosun, Lagau mabaigau malu aidal (colour linocut from one block, 2002, Mualgau Minaral print studio, Kubin, under Dennis Nona; National Gallery of Australia, 2002.105)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Alike in its design choices: [Rorke's Drift Linocut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/rorkes-drift-print.md) (1962–1982), 80% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Northwest Coast Formline Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/northwest-coast-formline.md) (1700–present), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Warli Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/warli-painting.md) (1970–present), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/maori-kowhaiwhai.md) (1500–present), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tibetan-woodblock-print.md) (c. 1410–present), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Literatura de Cordel Woodcut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cordel-woodcut.md) (1940–present), 63% alike

## Sources

- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O119148/tantanu-and-pohpuai-print-nona-dennis/
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/9279
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/37185
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/impressions/1199
- https://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/19915
- https://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/33264
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/39045
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/9070/
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/artists/17251/
- https://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/9230
- https://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/works/17255
- https://www.daao.org.au/bio/billy-missi/biography/
- https://www.bunbury.wa.gov.au/brag/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/billy-missin-wakain-thamai
- https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/6143/zenadth-kes--torres-strait-islands-from-carvers-to-printmakers/
- https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/collection-publications/collection/works/seven-blind-brothers-i-ii/28034/
- https://ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/87439
- https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/18925/
- https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/first-nations-collections/cultural-objects/zugubal-story-in-print-by-alick-tipoti-torres-strait-e93625/
- https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1291883
- https://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/objects/2017.39.5
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/555590
- https://www.sea.museum/person/brian-robinson
- https://vaultmagazine.com/issue_features/robinson_feature_ISS43.php
- https://www.oceanicartsociety.org.au/mariw-minaral-spiritual-patterns/
- https://2021.sydneyfestival.org.au/event/mariw-minaral
- https://camd.org.au/?p=33793
- https://www.art-almanac.com.au/brian-robinson-multiverse/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alick_Tipoti
- https://www.gabtitui.gov.au/gallery-shop/artists/ngalmun-lagau-minaral.html
- https://melbourneartfair.com.au/william-mora-indigenous-art-centre-program/moa-arts/
- https://creative.gov.au/investment-and-development/protocols-and-resources/protocols-for-using-first-nations-cultural-and-intellectual-property-in-the-arts/

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Torres Strait Islander Linocut”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/torres-strait-linocut/