Onespace is delighted to congratulate Elisa Jane Carmichael on receiving the Ruth Amery Highly Commended Award in the 2025 Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award announced on Saturday, 24 May. The prestigious $40,000 biennial Acquisitive Prize was awarded to Jemima Wyman for her work Haze 19, 2024. Congratulations to both Jemima and her representative gallery, Milani Gallery.
Elisa Jane was highly commended by guest judge, Dr Blair French, for her work, ‘Mirrigimpa,’ 2024. Handstitched and dyed with mangrove bark and eucalyptus leaves, ‘Mirrigimpa,’ 2024 depicts the sea eagle, an animal of great significance to Quandamooka people, providing knowledge of sustainable and communal hunting and fishing practices and embodying Ancestral cultural practices. ‘Mirrigimpa,’ sings with the changing tides, signalling when the mullet are coming and carries spiritual and cultural connections to sea and sky Country.
The work incorporates mullet fish scales, string, Talwalpin nets and scent from eucalyptus, banksia, casuarina and melaleuca leaves. The inner bark fibre of Talwalpin (cotton tree), used for millennia to make for nets and baskets, has been stripped and woven into string. Together the materials and methods of Mirrigimpa carry the scent and memories of Country while imagining Mirrigimpa’s vision, soaring across Quandamooka waters.
Our sincere thanks to Director, Rachael Arndt and the Wangaratta team.
Image: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.
