Kabi Kabi Bodylines

Artist: Bianca Beetson
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Kabi Kabi Bodylines

This work is Acrylic and cotton hand sewn onto canvas 125×105 cm

The stripes sewn into the canvas represent traditional body paint designs and scarification marking of the Kabi Kabi nation of the Sunshine Coast, QLD (which is my Grandmothers country). By hand sewing the stripes onto the canvas as opposed to painting them is a reference to the role my Grandmother played as a domestic after she left Cherbourg Mission (QLD) where she lived under the act. The work creates a dialogue about the impact of the stolen Generation on the Lives of our Family members which where affected by the Act. Furthermore the work looks at the way in which in Western society today the scar is seen as a bad thing, people who are scarred are look upon as being imperfect where as before colonisation scarring was a sign of importance and power. Ironically now days people pay good money to have scars removed, or if you are injured the neater the stitching the lesser the scar. The stitches scar the canvas.
The stitches become a metaphor for assimilation; the way in which the clothing which covered the naked bodies of the ‘ Natives’ is stitched together, as they where denied the right to wear there body paint. The colour pink denotes the Candy Coated history of Australia that is taught in our schools.
The Black Canvas represents the ‘skin’ of my people

Kabi Kabi Bodylines belongs to the following groups:

***♂♥♥QUORN♥♥♀, ART ACTION UNION - CREATIVE ACTIVISM and Queensland