Tithuyil – Moving with the Rhythm of the Stars

Tithuyil is a word from the dialect of Kala Lagaw Ya, the traditional language of the mabaegal from the Western Islands of Torres Strait. When translated into English it refers to clusters of stars in the night sky.

Like the astronomers of old, the Islanders too looked towards the heavens for advice to be confronted with stars in the thousands that shun down upon them out of the blackness of the night sky – the blackness that is space. 

Works in Tithuyil – Moving with the Rhythm of the Stars present an intoxicating world-view, one where iconic works of classical art and popular sources from global culture are co-opted into the spirit world of the Islander imagination. Wise-eyed sea creatures, muscular warriors, stars in the heavens, broad petaled flowering plants and hollow eyed skulls sweep through his works. Interwoven amongst this realm of references to his island home and the surrounding sea waters and islands of the Torres Strait, are the tokens and talismans of a parallel life within a global culture of super heroes, comic characters and ancient Classical mythologies.

Tithuyil – Moving with the Rhythm of the Stars is presented in collaboration with Mossenson Galleries in Perth.