Patrick Thaiday’s Zamiyakal, or ‘dance machines’, are unique articulated objects that are central to stirring Torres Strait Island performances, which include enthusiastic singing and drumming. Thaiday’s Zamiyakal and choreography feature prominently in community festivals and events, where performers manipulate the machines’ ingenious systems of moving joints and string pulleys to animate narrative dances. Though designed to be seen in motion, the bold designs and workings of the Zamiyakal remain powerful when static.

Comet (dance machines) represents the drama and intensity of a comet that appears only once every seven centuries. The celestial object relates to the Zugubal spirits and deities that once lived with humans, but now inhabit the cosmic world, controlling winds, tides and other elemental forces from their home in the sky.