The coming-of-age scarring of young skin, a Torres Strait Islands cultural practice of the 1800s, inspired a Canberra-based artist to create a ceramic work that won her a $20,000 art prize.
The Canberra Institute of Technology's cultural arts teacher and Yurauna Centre coordinator, Janet Fieldhouse, has just been announced the winner of the major prize in the 2011 Indigenous Ceramic Art Awards.
The award is run by the Shepparton Art Museum in Victoria, where Fieldhouse's creation is on show. The prize aims to provide cultural exchange opportunities for indigenous artists from around Australia.
The Queensland-born Torres Strait Islander, who moved to Canberra to study and now lives here, said of her win, ''It was overwhelming and an honour.''
Her prize was awarded for a creation called Tattoo. Consisting of a lightbox and transparent porcelain, it harks back to the now obsolete scarification practice. She encountered information on the tattooing when researching Torres Strait women and their weaving.
''I kept that in the back of my mind and started carving on surfaces I had made,'' Fieldhouse said.
The tattooing - most probably done with bones and shells, but not ink, because the aim was to raise patterns in the skin - marked important milestones, such as puberty and marriage.
As it had vanished as a cultural practice, Fieldhouse wanted to look at it as an artform of its time, to renew interest it.
She refers to the practice in her art with markings only apparent when the object is illuminated.
The piece took two weeks to make and is part of a series.
Fieldhouse won the same award three years ago when it was worth $15,000. Back then, the prizemoney funded a down payment on her house. Now, she plans to spend the funds either on her house again, or on her ceramics.
This reporter is on Twitter: @clairelow
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