LISA WAUP
Lisa Waup
Our Way series
2021, reflective aluminum, oxidised sterling silver, rubber, sprung steel, adhesive, Photography Fred Kroh.
ARTIST STATEMENT
LISA WAUP
Our Way has been created by utilising custom made reflective aluminium traffic sign, I have reassembled an everyday object to generate a new meaning. Our Way explores the power and peril of traffic, street, directional and warning signs, their ability to control, repress and disorientate First Nations people on their own land. By altering the text and changing the symbology, these words talk of being controlled, corralled, shut out. They also reconfigure mapping to provide new directives back to Country and culture. Historically signs are markers of violence, control and racism and more generally these signs have been used throughout Australian colonial history, inspiring me to disrupt, undo and fracture their original ambitions.
The once stagnant Western symbol has been recreated into an immersive experience for the viewer that encourages a new direction — one which moves backward (to family, culture, Country) and forward into the future. Here, a symbol of oppression and restriction takes a positive redirection to reclamation.
Lisa Waup
Our Way neckpiece
2021, reflective aluminum, oxidised sterling silver, rubber, adhesive, 343 x 230 x 4 mm, Photography Fred Kroh.
