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[a] of her great-great-grandmother, who became the legal property of the Wunderlich family in the 1800s.[7][12]
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]
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
Mana Moana:Volume 2: Digital Ocean, (17–25 July) Wellington, New Zealand. Artists: Dr Karlo Mila, Michel Tuffery, Dr Johnson Witehira, Warren Maxwell, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Kereama Taepa, Louise Potiki Bryant, Tina Ngata, Terri Ripeka Crawford, Kura Puke, Stuart Foster, Kurt Komene, Horomona Horo, Laughton Kora, Regan Balzer, Cathy Livermore, Jess Feast, Rob Thorne. Curated by Rachael Rakena and Mike Bridgman[19]
^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. ISBN978-0-473-36895-1. OCLC1038416076.
