Helen S Tiernan explores the theme of identity in her multi-layered paintings that draw from her Indigenous and Irish heritage and both western and Indigenous history, culture, imagery, and literature. For Tjukurrpa, Tiernan presents works created since 2014 depicting stories of first contact, knowledge, memory, journeys, and songlines.
The female experience manifests through Tiernan’s use of embossed and relief pattern and texture while bringing focus to the isolation of colonial women; Aboriginal women in servitude; the struggles faced by female creatives, and mothers more generally.
Helen S Tiernan, Fish Out of Water: Cultural Collisions, 2021, oil on canvas, 180 × 330cm (triptych). Courtesy the artist and Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne
Lauraine Diggins Fine Art
22 October to 26 November 2022
Melbourne
