Ellen Jose of the Miriam people of the Torres Strait Islands was born in 1951 and raised in Cairns in Far North Queensland. She graduated in 1976 from the Seven Hills Art College in Brisbane with a Certificate of Applied Art and followed this with a Diploma of Art in 1978 from the School of Art and Design at the Preston Institute of Technology in Melbourne. In 1979 she gained a Diploma of Education (Secondary) from the Melbourne State College of Secondary Teaching.
Jose works in various mediums including installation, drawing, video, printmaking, painting and photography. Her works often explore her islander heritage; its symbols and identifying markers as well as commenting on the political aspect of Australian Indigenous life. Many of her prints, which are in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection, reference Torres Strait Islander iconography. In 1991 Jose produced a solo exhibition In Search of Lost Innocence in which she investigated the subject of child sexual abuse and in 1992 her drawing Long winding trail pays tribute to her father, a soldier of Islander, Filipino and Portuguese heritage who served during World War II in New Guinea and references the marches he undertook, in particular the Kokoda Trail. This work is in the collection of the Australian War Memorial. Her installation work Life in the balance includes bamboo, sand and shells and speaks of the struggle the Torres Strait Islander people face with balancing a traditional lifestyle with the modern world.
Her photographic work, which is more in the documentary field than strictly “art” and reminiscent of the style of Mervyn Bishop, depicts images of daily life of Aboriginal people in Victoria and of friends and family members. Many of these images have been collected by the National Gallery of Australia.
William Mora describes her canvas work on his gallery’s website as “luminous turquoise canvases” that “depict images, symbols and artefacts from the Torres Strait Islands; evoking the ghost of traditional lifestyles that have since ceased to exist, and celebrating the resilience of her people in the face of colonisation.”
Jose has contributed to many group exhibitions including Yiribana (1994) at the Art Gallery of NSW, Re-take: contemporary aboriginal and torres strait islander photography (1998/1999) at the National Gallery of Australia which also toured nationally, Ilan Pasin (1998) at the Cairns Regional Art Gallery and national tour and Native Title Business (2002/2005) at the Queensland Museum and national tour.
In addition to the collections mentioned above Jose has work held in the collections of the Australian Print Workshop archives, the Print Council of Australia archives, Global Arts Link, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Flinders University Art Museum, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the State Libraries of Victoria and NSW.
Jose passed away on the 2nd of June, 2017 at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern. Her husband, Joseph Toscano is the holder of her estate.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2018
