Lisa Waup

Lisa Waup’s oeuvre is intrinsically linked to her complex cultural experience, which includes the tracing of her First Nations ancestry to the Gunditjmara people of Western Victoria and the people of the Torres Strait, her former life as a resident of Papua New Guinea, and her relationships with her two mothers, adoptive and biological.

Waup’s sculptural and experimental printmaking practices are propelled
by a layering of graphic symbolism, language and materials. Waup’s sophisticated repertoire of mark-making and deft harnessing of materials is as fundamental to her work as the messages and stories they contain. In recent work, Waup uses quotidian road signage and hessian sandbags, recontextualizing them to suggest ways in which First Nations knowledge could help to shape a better future.

Holding Country 2023
screen-painted hessian bags, reflective ink, ochre, ink,
found material
University of Melbourne Art Collection

0NELOTS 2021
custom made reflective traffic signs, screen printed, ink,
found metal stands made by Blueprint Sculpture
Courtesy the artist

TSOL 2021
custom made reflective traffic signs, screen printed, ink,
stands made from found metal by Blueprint Sculpture
Courtesy the artist

DETNAW 2021
custom made reflective traffic signs, screen printed, ink,
stands made from found metal by Blueprint Sculpture
Courtesy the artist

Image top: Lisa Waup, NELOTS, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of McClelland Gallery.