Tamirat Gebremariam
Tamirat is an Ethiopian born migrant living in Melbourne as an artist. He completed his
diploma from school
of Fine Art at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in 1993; where he then
went on to have several solo and group exhibitions extensively in and around Egypt, and Australia. In
2001 Tamirat moved to Sydney
where he studied Digital Art and Media at Metro Screen before moving to Melbourne. In 2010 Tamrat
completed his Master of Visual Art at the University of Melbourne,
Faculty of Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). He perused his career further
and currently Tamirat undertaking Master of Fine art by research at U.M faculty
of the VCA. In 2009 Tamirat was awarded the Martin Foley MP award and the
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Women's Association Postgraduate
Encouragement Award. At the VCA Margaret Lawrence gallery he was awarded
2011-12 APA (Australian post
graduate Award) Scholarship, from university
of Melbourne.
Tamirat’s work has collected around the world, including Ethiopia, Egypt,
USA, Canada and Australia include recently Jaycar electronics, with his friends
and families and also the most important a portrait of Dr. Catherine Hamlin, founder
of the Fistula hospital in Ethiopia. Among Tamirat works
Black Saturday
The hopelessly tragic February 7th bushfires of black Saturday in 2009
was a catastrophic disaster that desolated families, who lost their homes,
suburbs and schools. I was touched by the community support and friendship
networks this tragic incident provoked. My current project 2009-10 which
exhibited both BMW gallery Federation
Square and 45 down stare gallery Melbourne, explores
the potential of painting to express the personal feelings experienced during a
migratory transition in human identity and individuality.
Tamirat Gebremariam for the project Victorian Bush fire 2009-10
“capturing the moment’
In
early 2009, the painter student Tamirat Gebremariam set out to witness the
devastation caused by recent bushfires on the outskirts of his hometown, Melbourne. In response to
this visit, he painted a series of works, creating swirling forms in pictorial
space using extraordinary tones of oranges and burnt pinks. It was as if he had
captured the phenomenal moment of elemental annihilation. Here was a coded
transposition of the power of nature to the surfacing of paint on canvas. The
artist’s intention was to vivify that which he witnessed. From the reality of
the monumental event of the bushfires (which he visited a number of times once
the restricted area was reopened to the public) he returned to the studio and
set to work. Armed with photographs of the scene and sketches he had made, he
drew on his sensational faculties to create the work. But representational painting
is not only about conceptual articulation, it is also a process that is
mediated by the material of the artist’s métier and the facility of the artist
to manipulate this material in such a way that is conducive to his or her
sensibility.
The
result in this case was quite stunning. A series of large, abstract, paintings
that lay somewhere between early expressionism, romanticism and surrealism.
They are works that have a close affinity with nature but they are not natural.
They are anti-vapid: There is a hyper-quality about them–an intensity in their
focus, colour and affirmation. Their nature is metaphysical. A clue to this
effect is that Tamirat has not painted what he has witnessed. It took a long
time for me to realise that the flames had been extinguished long before
Tamirat had arrived at the scene. Presumably what he saw was a blackened earth
with scatterings of grey ash, desolate ruins of properties and blackened
skeletal tree trunks–with perhaps a lucky scattering of a few colours that had
escaped singeing. So what informed the pictures? It occurs to me that the fire
is in Tamirat, himself. It is in his imagination, his dexterity and his
ambition. The forms and observations are still there but in these paintings his
presence now permeates the redux. And it is this fusion that he generously
shares with us in these works. John Meade June 2010
Cultural
Revolution
Tamirat stated that in his recent work of project Cultural
Revolution is at Footscray community Art
Centre Concerning about the creation of the next talented generation around the
community and beyond.
“I am looking at ways to explore my identity and history in 2 cultures,
(the beauty and authenticity of both Ethiopian heritage and Australian urban
cultural diversity) and how these combine in a visual sense. My Ethiopian
background informs my painting through my journey from one culture to another,
My paintings depicting abstracted, urban landscapes and aspects of figuration
from my birth place to the wider globalization of culture. Issues of identity
and awareness that I have investigated come from a personal perspective that I
have used to explore mapping as a journey depicting an allegorical self
portrait examined through contemporary art forms and themes with imagery
derived from my traditional cultural heritage, and have explored my cultural
shift through living and experiencing the value of Australian multiculturalism
from an artistic point of view.
My work has developed and continues to develop, a visual language to
express my mixed history and give the viewer an opportunity to join in my
journey. A key intention has been to
invite the viewer to a closer understanding of unresolved national stories. The
visual story and terminology that I discovered was present in our lives, our
culture and our heritage, and is also in myths, social and cultural life taking
over each other, sharing and harmonizing with one to another when I transform
that to the body of work that will be an expression of generations, layer upon
layer replicating the stories, I begin by feeling my own stories and others,
discovering and experimenting, and then translate this emotion into the
painting. My art reflects both my African past and the contemporary world of
the Australian culture and landscape I now live in. From this position as an
Ethiopian migrant, I examine these areas to discover my own experiences and
those of other living cultures.”
| | |