Create a shell necklace with Elisa Jane Carmichael

Sun 30 Jun 2024

Ngugi artist Elisa Jane Carmichael draws inspiration from her Quandamooka Country, Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) and Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) for her ‘Art Box for Kids‘ project at the Children’s Art Centre, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from 13 July – 27 October 2024. Children are invited to create their own unique shell necklace, inspired by the beautiful eugarie shells (pipis) that can be found on the shores of Minjerribah. We filmed Carmichael on Minjerribah to create a video in which she introduces herself, her Country and her art practice, and includes a step-by-step guide for the making activity ‘shell adornments’.

Watch | A step-by-step guide for the making activity

Carmichael has had a love of shells since childhood and often incorporates them into her own artworks. She collected the shells children can use for tracing as part of the activity, and these shells will be returned to the artist at the end of the project. She has said:

As a saltwater woman, shells are really an extension of who we are as Quandamooka people, but all First Nations people who are from saltwater country or freshwater country have shells which were used as food sources [or] worn on the body for spiritual connections and ceremonial practices.^[40]

On display as part of ‘Art Box for Kids: Elisa Jane Carmichael’, are two paper shell necklaces that Carmichael has made, including one in collaboration with her own child, using the same materials that children will use in the space. These necklaces are displayed alongside her four-strand necklace Adornment of Power 02 2021 (illustrated). This delicate artwork combines shells, reed segments and fish scales from Quandamooka Country with silk-wrapped wire, woven into baskets using weaving techniques taught to her by her mother, fellow Ngugi artist Sonja Carmichael.

Elisa Carmichael has said ‘I like to make neck adornments, because, to me, I see them as a way of carrying our Country, and our stories from Country’.^[41] She hopes that the activity will inspire children to look around them and see what elements they can use to create with from nature, and be creative in telling their own stories by wearing them.^[42]

Adornment of Power 02 2021

Laura Mudge is Senior Program Officer, Children’s Art Centre, QAGOMA.

Art Box for Kids: Elisa Jane Carmichael
13 July – 27 October 2024
Gallery 1.4, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)

‘Art Box for Kids’ is an exhibition series that prioritises sustainable design and the use of recycled or repurposed activity materials where possible, presented in Gallery 1.4 of the Children’s Art Centre at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Each edition of the program will invite children to meet an artist through an introduction video, see an example of their work on display, and explore their creativity through hands-on making.

Based on key principles of the Children’s Art Centre, ‘Art Box for Kids’ aims to provide opportunities for children to engage with contemporary ideas and cultures, gain insights into the processes of making art, and facilitates intergenerational connection through hands-on audience participation. ‘Art Box for Kids’ will primarily feature local and Queensland-based artists.

‘Art Box for Kids: Elisa Jane Carmichael’ is supported by Brisbane Airport

Endnotes

1. ^ Interview with Elisa Jane Carmichael, January 2024.
2. ^ Interview with Elisa Jane Carmichael, January 2024.
3. ^ Interview with Elisa Jane Carmichael, January 2024.