We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Rosie Ware / Muralag people / Australia b.1959 / Sea of plenty 2010 / Commercial cotton fabric, block and screen printed / 400 x 113cm / Commissioned for ‘Land, Sea and Sky: Contemporary Art of the Torres Strait Islands’. Purchased 2011 with funds from Thomas Bradley through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rosie Ware
Rosie WareSea of Plenty 2010
On Display: GOMA, Gallery 3.5
Rosie Ware has had a successful textile printing career and works from her home studio on Waiben (Thursday Island). Here, her work highlights the protection of Australia’s northern borders by more than 800 Torres Strait men during the war in the Pacific (1942–45) and the lives of their women and children they left behind; the fate of sailors shipwrecked in dangerous Torres Strait waters, beheaded by local warriors; and the history and influence of the pearling, trochus, bêche-de-mer and crayfishing industries that have dominated the Torres Strait economy in the last century.
Rosie Ware is an award-winning textile designer and printer who lives on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. A self-taught printmaker, she has participated in group exhibitions since 1996.
Ware designs and prints from her home studio on Green Hill, which overlooks the Thursday Island Harbour and nearby islands. She prints on silk, satin, cotton and linen fabrics, exploring designs inspired by her tropical garden, the marine environment and, most importantly, Torres Strait culture and history.