Moa Island artist Solomon Booth explored themes of pollution and consumption in his works at the 2024 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Photo: Chisa Hasegawa.
The founding chairman of Moa Arts says mindfulness, perspective, awareness and the environment were key themes in his recent works at the 15th Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.
A constantly evolving artist, printmaker Solomon Booth shared two meaningful, contemporary pieces with the Cairns audience during the annual event.
“The jellyfish prints that I’ve done, that are hanging on the wall, are based on how plastic bags look like jellyfish in the water,” he explained.
“Upon closer look, it’s layered details; you can see plastic bags in the middle of the jellyfish, which is food for the green sea turtle, which is a traditional food for our people up in the Islands.
“It’s all about being mindful not to pollute the environment; we’ve got to take care of the environment, because if we don’t take care of where we live, eat and sleep, it’ll turn into a rubbish dump.”
Having worked as an artist for 24 years, Mr Booth said his style and themes were constantly changing.
“If you took my works from seven years ago and put them side by side with stuff I’ve done now, you couldn’t tell they were produced by the same artist, because I did more traditional mark-making in my practice at that time,” he said.
“Even though I include a lot of those mark-makings in these new styles, these new styles are more contemporary.
“I’m just finding a better way to relate and communicate my message to the wider community.”
Mr Booth said change was important to him, and his lifestyle allowed him to evolve and try new things to take back to his community on Moa Island.
“It’s all about learning something new every day, not being stagnant,” Mr Booth said.
“The beautiful thing about the lifestyle that I live is that I get to travel and do what I love doing, but I can also stay on Country, and with that, I grab these skillsets and new ideas from the experiences I gather from travelling, and I take it back home and I use it for the benefit of my people and my art centre.”
