A conversation with Lisa Waup

Lisa with fabrics from the collection – featuring *Oneness* in ‘Ocean’ – and her original drawings. Photo: Martina Gemmola.

Our Lisa Waup Collection of commercial textiles, released late last year, was developed from three paper-based artworks by Lisa Waup, a mixed-cultural First Nations artist and curator born and based in Naarm (Melbourne). After receiving countless requests to welcome an artist from our hometown into the fold, it has been wonderful to collaborate with Lisa to create this collection.

Three final designs – Oneness, Defragmentation and Renewed – tell important stories about Lisa’s life, culture and devotion to country. Understanding the meaning and intention behind a textile design can bring so much depth to the life of a project, so we sat down with Lisa to chat about the story behind the collection, and her work more broadly.

Embracing the Italian heritage of her adoptive family in her youth, in adulthood Lisa came to understand and connect with her role as a proud Gunditjmara woman and Torres Strait Islander. Her multidisciplinary practice spans weaving, printmaking, photography, sculpture, fashion, and digital art. She has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at the National Museum of Australia, Koorie Heritage Trust, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Kluge-Ruhe in Charlottesville (USA).

The hallmarks of Lisa’s work include a deep connection to the symbolic power of materials; personal experiences of family history; Country; and broader historical narratives. Always actively exploring new mediums, she has successfully steered a contemporary art practice alongside commercial fashion and textile collaborations, including two well-loved clothing collections with Melbourne-based fashion designer, Ingrid Verner, supported by Craft Victoria.

Each venture is infused with Lisa’s signature passion, authenticity and depth. In close collaboration, we have developed three textile designs in a suite of fresh, vibrant colourways across our range of commercial upholstery fabrics, and as acoustic panels as part of our ongoing collaboration with Autex Acoustics.

Your multidisciplinary practice incorporates a diverse range of media and you are known for your openness to exploring new mediums. Why are you motivated to work in this way and what do you enjoy about this process of exploration?

I am greatly inspired by materiality – It really speaks to me. I can find a found or natural object that carries a story within it already – it evokes me to add my story to it. It carries history, I feel I am able to give the material another life, adding to its story.

At times I don’t quite know what I will do with materials when I find them, they may sit in my studio for many years before being used and when needed they show themselves to me. Guided messages per se.

“Paper is my first love – I always come back to it in one way shape or form. I love the feel of paper, the texture of it, it is very seductive. I love that once you mark it, it is near unchangeable – it is unforgiving at times, yet that is one of the many things that I love about it. ”

— Lisa Waup

You have always been creative – constantly drawing and making as a child – and then completed your studies in printmaking and photography at RMIT in the early 1990s. So even though your work constantly evolves, paper and printing are two constants. Can you tell us about these and any other mediums you always come back to?

Paper is my first love – I always come back to it in one way shape or form. I love the feel of paper, the texture of it, it is very seductive. I love that once you mark it, it is near unchangeable – it is unforgiving at times, yet that is one of the many things that I love about it.

I studied my Master of Contemporary Art (VCA) as a mature-age student (2020-2021). A big drive for this was so I could get back into printmaking again. It had been nearly 30 years since I had been printmaking extensively (etching, lithography, lino). It was a long time in the making to get my hands inky again.

Printmaking is such an underrated art form; it is history in the making. I always come back to weaving also, another medium that carries my stories so innately. I weave with feathers; I have the most incredible collection of feathers just waiting for me to create with.

Weaving became a constant in your work soon after you were introduced to it. This practice is such a fundamental part of First Nations culture and is often referenced by the artists we work with. What does this practice mean to you as a person and what is its place in your work?

When I first got introduced to weaving back in 2011, I didn’t stop weaving for 10 years straight – I mean I still weave, yet not so much anymore as it has caused a bit of havoc on my hands.

Weaving is such a meditative process, I feel that I go off into another world and my hands lead me, I am led by something greater than I. The process of collecting feathers holds great significance for me also as they are little treasures that mostly fall from the sky – they are messengers. For me, I connect with the Country around me that the birds live in. I am also very fortunate that I have wonderful family and friends around me also collecting for me. I package feathers up in my studio according to where I have got them from, or who gave them to me. This is woven into the vessels also.

The Lisa Waup Collection is drawn from three of your artworks. Oneness comes from a print of the same name that you exhibited last year in CURRENT, an exhibition of newly commissioned work by three First Nations artists – Gail Mabo (Meriam), Dominic White (Palawa/Trawlwoolway) and yourself at McClelland Gallery. Can you tell us more about the story behind the piece in this exhibition, including some details of the ‘vessel’ theme that has been a recurring symbol in your work?

My part in CURRENT was a bit of a survey [of my work]. We had some of my woven works on loan from several institutions – it was so wonderful to see them again. I was also commissioned by McClelland, which enabled me to create an ambitious work.

This work is titled holding Country. It comprises 365 suspended screen-printed sandbags which I have turned into actual bags with a variety of handles. This work details the innate connection that I have with Country. It details the fragility of her – how she calls to be respected and taken care of. These bags are a reminder of our obligation – 365 days of the year – to be mindful, to walk softly on this earth. The bag is a recurring symbol in my work, in its essence the bag represents a womb – holding, protecting, nurturing.

Lisa Waup, *Holding Country,* 2023, screenprinted jute sand bags, ink, reflective ink, variable handles, cotton thread. CURRENT, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, printed at Spacecraft Studio. Photo: Christian Capurro.

Defragmentation depicts protective elements detailed in a fragmented wooden shield - also a theme that repeats in your work. Can you tell us about this?

Wooden shields for me represent the pinnacle of protection. In an earlier series of work they were used to protect information from governmental documents, to cloak a secrecy of information. Further along in my work and understanding of my history, the shield became fragmented. They began looking more like the grains of wood as opposed to the whole shape of a shield. They were used as protection: they detail pathways of connection – known and unknown.

The third design in the collection is Renewed, based on the rains after the dryness of summer, and the renewed sense of growth and change that results. What is the story behind this piece and how does it fit in with larger themes about Country that are often a feature of your work?

Renewed represents how the rain runs away from Country after she has been baked for weeks by intense heat with little respite over the summer time. Renewed also details the shifting of seasons - an exciting promotion of new growth. When new life begins to regrow, the plants will flourish again with the intermission of the rains and provide care for many other living creatures. It is a renewed sense of growth and change, a shifting of seasons.

For me, it is an appreciation of Country and how she is always reinventing herself to care. For me, Country is everything. This includes the Sky, the Waters, the ground – it is an invitation to care for Country - we care for her, and she provides for us always.

How do the pieces talk to each other and what was it like working with Jess and Laetitia from Willie Weston to select this trio as an expression of your work suitable for textiles?

The three works – Oneness, Defragmentation and Renewed – all work so well together. They are telling a story in a whole – yet individually they are holding their own space. The [designs variously] talk of positionality, identity and belonging (Oneness), through to a protection of history and story of family from the past to the present and well into the future (Defragmentation), and lastly an honouring of Country (Renewed). All three detail a holistic view of connection.

Working with Jess and Laetitia has been a wonderful experience - a transparent, communicative one. There were several other drawings that were included in the shortlist and I believe we have selected the perfect trio of works for this beautiful collection.

The colourways in this collection are a departure from your usual more monochromatic approach. What has been your experience in seeing your works reimagined in this way?

I was greatly supported with the section of colour palette for the works as my work is very monochromatic normally, so to see the designs spring to life in an array of tones was very exciting for me. Soft and bold colourways shift the view of my previous original prints and drawings, giving them a deeper perspective and appreciation of colour.

And what about interior design? Not all artists are interested in commercialising their work, but it's been a rich and varied adjunct to your practice. How do you see this collaboration with Willie Weston (or other commercial projects you've been involved with) sitting alongside your broader art-making practice?

A collaboration takes lots of conversations – it is essential that it is done correctly; it is essential that it is done respectfully for it to work. Commercial collaborations reach a different audience to what an art gallery does – [they are] a wonderful way to extend the connection to my work.

“Collaborations are so very underrated – what happens when you take two creatives, artists, makers, and knowledgeable people in their individual fields and bring them together? MAJIC happens. ”

— Lisa Waup

Is there anything else you would like our clients and their end users to know about these designs?

I hope that my designs evoke conversations. Storytelling is such a huge part of my practice. To bring light onto events in our history and ask questions about the effects on our climate which will hopefully call to mind the urgency of our footprint.

And finally, as you know Willie Weston’s ambition is to celebrate the diverse artistic output of First Nations artists and to support its integration into the built environment. What does this mean to you and your culture?

Prior to the British and European settlement/invasion, there were over 500 First Nations groups that inhabited the continent that we now call Australia. There is such a variety of mark-making and cultural stories embedded in our work. For me it gives a voice to my ancestors who had no voice – my work is a vehicle for observance and reclamation.

View the collection