Summary

About the Artwork

The passage left by rolling and tumbling woven baskets are used as a metaphor to show the path women take and how heavy the load can be. Grandma was too young when she had to transition regularly down the path that led kilometres in and out of a small country town on Gomeroi/Kamilaroi Country by herself. Alone, but not alone she would step forth with a light foot. She trusted her own in-built radar and the path she would fly on by foot. Sheltered by her hiding spots along the trip, she could slip in without being seen or drawing attention. Ducking and weaving she would stay close to gullies and ditches. Listening to transiting sounds ahead as chatter and movement would reverberate and dance off the mountains and hills close by.

Artist Biography

Clare Jaque Vasquez is an emerging Indigenous artist descended from the Kamilaroi people of north-central New South Wales and Welsh ancestry. Clare grew up in Sydney and later moved back to live in her mother's country in a community near Tamworth. She now lives and works on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country in Townsville, north Queensland.

Clare's works present stories and weaving practices using mixed media on canvas to create textural and painterly, often monochromatic, landscapes. She first exhibited in 2008 in Tamworth, and in 2022 showed her work at CIAF, followed by her first solo exhibition at Umbrella Studios Contemporary Art in Townsville in 2023. In the same year, she won and the M&C Saatchi Group and Saatchi Gallery 'Art for Change' – Australian Winner Award. Her work is held in private collections in NSW, Victoria and Queensland and in the James Cook University Art Collection.