Mystery of Miffy brings art award closer
A CAIRNS-based artist is one of eight, proud Indigenous Queenslanders to be a finalist in the national King and Wood Mallesons Contemporary First Nations Art Award.
Brian Robinson’s linocut piece titled Miffy and Friends: The Usual Suspects will come under the eyes of an expert Indigenous art judging panel as it competes with more than 60 entries for the top gong to be announced early November.
“The title resonates from two main sources – firstly, the small white female rabbit in the centre known as Miffy, which was created by Dutch artist and author Dick Bruna,” Mr Robinson said.
“Secondly, it refers to the 1995 mystery thriller, The Usual Suspects, which follows the interrogation of Roger Kint, a small-time conman who spins a convoluted story about a mysterious crime lord known as Keyser Soze.”
Mr Robinson said he’d been practising his craft since the early ’90s but had been a fulltime artist for the past 10 years.
His work is primarily in the form of printmaking, like his latest piece, and sculpture making with his work permanently on display at the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon.
“The piece that I’ve entered is a large black and white linocut. The process that you go through to create a linocut is you start with piece of linoleum, then you draw an image onto that linoleum and then you hand cut all the line work that you’ve drawn.
“Then you can add a pattern into it. This piece is 1m high by 2m wide and all up was about 40 hours of cutting.”
Mr Robinson said his artwork aimed to present intriguing narratives while revealing the strong tradition of storytelling within his family.
The winner of multiple national art awards said it would be an honour to be recognised once more. “It’s always good to be selected as a finalist for any award,” he said.