Decor Systems partnered with four Indigenous Australian artists for their newly launched ‘Contours of Country’ range of acoustic panels that pay homage to the traditional owners of the land that we live and build on today.
With help from Blaklash, we were able to connect with like-minded artists and create beautifully crafted and thoughtful acoustic panels to provide architects and designers with the opportunity to amplify the voices and stories of the traditional owners of the land within their designs.
Meet the artists
Toby Bishop - Kungarakan, Northern Territory
Toby Bishop, or Yukupin in his language, is a proud Indigenous man. His mob is known as the Kungarakan people, who are custodians of the Finniss River in the Fitzmaurice Region of the Northern Territory. Toby grew up on the south coast of NSW in Stanwell Park and now lives in Austinmer, NSW.
An artist and graphic designer, his art practice stems from his Nana’s (wetjis) lifetime work of restoring the Kungarakun language. Using her language book ‘speak Kungarakun’ as inspiration, he is able to draw on the spiritual importance of language, and its connection to how language was informed by the intricacies of nature, simultaneously allowing himself to learn the dialect. Toby often looks closely into the patterns of the Kungarakun landscape, as well as the landscape around the South Coast of NSW, where he lives.
Artist statement: "Kungarakan people are freshwater people, evident through the abundant waterholes and underground aquifers connected to Kungarakan sacred sites and Dreamtime stories. River ways (kobuhJoorri) provided bountiful fishing and hunting areas, as well as providing sacred places for ceremony. When I first step foot back on Country, I let the ancestors know I have arrived, this process involves covering my face with the water from Coomalie Creek, and letting my scent run through the land. These lines represent the veins of Country, the spirit of my ancestors."
Jenna Lee - Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri, Northern Territory
Jenna Lee is a mixed-race Larrakia woman whose contemporary art practice straddles the often-obscured lines between identity/identification, label/labelling and the relationships formed between language, label and object. Formally trained as a graphic designer, she now aptly executes a multidisciplinary approach to her practice, exploring painting, sculpture, digital applications and graphic design.
Childhood memories of Brisbane and Darwin strongly influence Lee’s work in addition to her overlapping Aboriginal and Asian identities. Her most recent work intuitively explores transformation of the printed word via a process of destruction and reconstruction, in an attempt to generate strength for her community with new and tangible languages
Artist statement: "With a practice that explores and interrogates the collecting of Aboriginal resources, primarily language and objects, these works look at the collection and commodification of the Eucalyptus, one of Australia's most widespread and traditionally used plants. Drawing inspiration from the materiality of the panels, these works see images and textures of Eucalyptus bark and seeds etched back into the surface of the wood, aiming to re-embed the First Nations' perspective and understanding of these materials within the built environment."
Keisha Leon - Waanyi & Kalkadoon, Queensland
Keisha Thomason (family name Leon) is an Aboriginal graphic designer and artist. Keisha is a proud Waanyi & Kalkadoon woman (Mount Isa, Queensland). Keisha’s artwork style is contemporary, influenced by her culture, identity and modern world concepts.
Artist statement: Keisha Leon is an artist and designer who uses conceptual narratives to reflect her own experiences, bringing the ideas to life to build connections. Keisha is a proud Waanyi and Kalkadoon woman, building her design around her connections to her continual navigation of her identity and life. Her prints reflect her own perceptions on her identity; experiences of disconnection to connection; and how everchanging our connections are to ourselves, each other, and the greater change around us.
Rachael Sarra - Goreng Goreng, Queensland
Rachael Sarra is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer and businesswoman whose work is an extension of her being and experiences. As a contemporary mixed race, First Nations artist from Goreng Goreng Country, Rachael uses art as a powerful tool and outlet to explore themes she often grapples with while her work is often the resolution of such themes and conflict within herself. Rachael’s work often challenges and explores the themes of society's perception of what Aboriginal art and identity are. Rachael graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design from the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane and is a dynamic creative with the ability to challenge narratives that are often in place to perpetuate colonial harm.
Artist statement: "Turtle Season – My favourite memories of Country are by the ocean. While my energy and spirit connects from a position of distance I am reminded of my totem, the turtle (milbi). Every season the milbi will hatch from the sand and make its way to navigate the ocean, no matter how far the milbi journeys away it always remembers its way home. Country Currents – As we look out to the ocean with our feet buried in the sand we feel spirit rushing over and through us. The saltwater currents flowing through our past, into our present and guiding us to our future. We are the salt, we are the water and we are here."
