Grace Lillian Lee
Meriam Mer people
Born 1988, Cairns, Australia
Lives and work in Cairns

Ken Thaiday Snr
Meriam Mer people
Born 1950, Erub (Darnley Island), Torres Strait Islands
Lives and work in Cairns

Grace Lillian Lee is a proud descendant of the Meriam Mer people of the eastern islands of the Torres Straits. As an artist, designer and mentor, she explores her lineage and identity through weaving and creates fashion, adornments and performances that blur the boundaries of fashion and art. She is known for her unique body sculptures, using a distinct technique derived from the woven grasshopper-shaped toys and hanging ornaments of the Torres Strait Islands. Grace pays tribute to her mentor, Erub artist and APT10 collaborator Dr Ken Thaiday Snr, for teaching her the weave.

Thaiday’s unique multidisciplinary practice is rooted in cultural customs and traditional forms using contemporary materials. Through his elaborate articulated ‘dance masks’ and headdresses, designed to be mobilised through performance, he has progressively worked to upscale his into immersive experiences that contemporise the traditional form of the dhari. Suggoo Pennise stands as culmination of his journey — a three-and-a-half-metre kinetic dhari sculpture within which Lee and Thaiday have infused significant Mer cultural and environmental references.