Jasmine Togo-Brisby - Liquid Land

Part of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Liquid Land marks the debut European solo exhibition by Australian South Sea Islander artist Jasmine Togo-Brisby. Created in response to the architectural history of Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, Liquid Land presents new site-specific installations and sculptural works. Exploring histories of enslavement and domestic labour whilst tracing relationships across the Pacific, Australia, and wider dialogues about the transatlantic slave trade, these works illuminate the global scope of industries and exploitation.

Spanning sculpture, photography, installation, and video, Jasmine’s multidisciplinary practice is a profound exploration of “blackbirding”, the nineteenth century practice of deceiving or kidnapping Pacific Islanders for forced labour on Australian sugar plantations. Through the optical deception of mirrors, where flashes of light were perceived as signs from the spirit world or communication from ancestors, slave recruiters compelled people out into the water to investigate.

In Liquid Land, Jasmine lures with beauty and intrigue, intentionally mimicking the trickery that once weaponised Pacific Islanders’ cultural and spiritual beliefs and curiosity. At the exhibition’s heart is a full-scale recreation of Jasmine’s ancestral home in Australia, originally built by her Ni-Vanuatu ancestors. The thatched hut, modelled after an archival family photograph, houses an oceanic, crow-feathered installation. Throughout Liquid Land, Jasmine addresses notions of home, belonging, and retreat within the contradictions of confinement and violence.

Image
Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Can you see us now? 2024, cast plaster.
Photo by Max Bull-Crossan