Jasmine Togo-Brisby facts for kids

Jasmine Togo-Brisby (born in 1982) is an artist from the South Sea Islander community. She is famous for her amazing sculptures and portrait photos. Jasmine lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, New Zealand. She is one of the few artists who focuses on the history of forced Pacific labour in her art.

Jasmine's Early Life and Family History

Jasmine Togo-Brisby was born in 1982 in Queensland, Australia. She spent her early years in Tweed Heads, New South Wales. Later, she lived in Townsville and Mackay, Queensland. Her family comes from the islands of Ambae and Santo. These islands are part of the Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

Jasmine's interest in photography began when she looked at old South Sea Islander records. These old photos helped shape the culture of the South Sea Islanders. As a child, she remembers her community searching through these records every year. They did this to find their history and learn about their ancestors. A curator named Gordon-Smith says Jasmine's art is "personally motivated" by her family's past. Jasmine herself says:

Through my work I’m trying to create another space for our ancestors to exist within.

After finishing high school, Jasmine moved to Brisbane in 2012. She earned a Diploma of Visual Art from the Southbank Institute of Technology. She then studied for a Bachelor's Degree (Honours) in Fine Art. She studied at Massey University in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and Griffith University in Brisbane. She finished this degree in 2017. In 2019, she continued her studies and earned a Master's in Fine Art from Massey University.

Jasmine's Art Career and Themes

Togo-Brisby is best known for exploring the history of South Sea Islanders. Her art shows how forced labour has affected her community from the past until today.

Her sculpture Bittersweet (made between 2013 and 2015) was first shown in New Zealand. It was displayed at Te Uru. This artwork was inspired by the discovery of a large unmarked burial ground. This site was once a plantation in Queensland, Australia. The artwork is described like this: "Installed on a plinth in a dark gallery, a pile of skulls cast in unrefined sugar and resin glisten under the gallery lights, giving off a sickly-sweet smell."

Her exhibition Dear Mrs Wunderlich (2020) refers to old records she found. These records proved that her great-great-grandmother was taken by blackbirding. This means she was tricked or forced to work for the Wunderlich family in the 1800s.

Jasmine opened her first big solo exhibition, Hom Swit Hom (2022), at Artspace Mackay in Mackay, Queensland. She said:

Mackay has the largest population of Australian South Sea Islanders, so this is a monumental exhibition for me and something that has been a long time coming.

Solo Art Exhibitions

Jasmine Togo-Brisby has had several solo exhibitions:

• 2013: Jugglers Art Space, Brisbane
• 2019: Birds of Passage, Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin
• 2019: Adrift, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington
• 2020: Dear Mrs Wunderlich Page Galleries
• 2020: If these walls could talk, they'd tell you my name, Courtenay Place Park Light Boxes, Wellington
• 2020: From Bones and Bellies, CoCa, Christchurch
• 2022: Hom Swit Hom Artspace Mackay, Queensland, Australia

Group Art Exhibitions

Jasmine Togo-Brisby has also shown her work in many group exhibitions with other artists:

• 2013: Head & Sole, Logan Art Gallery, Logan Central, Queensland, Australia
• 2013: Echoes ASSI 150, The Centre Beaudesert, Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia
• 2013: Memories from a Forgotten People: 150 Years of Australian South Sea Islander, State Library of Queensland, Southbank, Australia
• 2013: Journey Blong Yumi: Australian South Sea Islander, Logan Art Gallery, Logan Central, Queensland, Australia
• 2014: DNA: Deadly Nui Art, Black Dot Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Artists included Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Tony Tai, Damien Shen, Mariaa Randall, Francis Tapueluelu, Chanel Winarti, and Lily Aitui Laita.
• 2015: Fish hooks & Moving Trees (touring exhibition), BEMAC, Brisbane + Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
• 2015: From here to there (touring exhibition), Pine Rivers Museum + Noosa Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
• 2016: Influx (touring exhibition), St Paul Street Gallery, Auckland + Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, Wellington
• 2016: Handle with Care, Te Uru, Auckland
• 2016: Fifty Shades of Blak, Black Dot Gallery, Victoria, Australia
• 2016: Vai Niu Wai Niu Coconut Water, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
• 2017: Colonial Sugar - Tracey Moffat & Jasmine Togo-Brisby, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington
• 2018: Worn Identities, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington
• 2018: Seeing Moana Oceania, Auckland Art Gallery/Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland
• 2018: OCEANIA, Beaudesert Regional Gallery, Queensland
• 2018: From where I stand, my eye will send a light to you in the North, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland
• 2018: WANKTOK (touring exhibition), Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Wellington + Māngere Arts Centre - Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, Auckland
• 2019: Tākiri: An Unfurling, New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland
• 2019: Beyond Kapene Kuku/Captain Cook, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington
• 2019: Auckland Art Fair, The Cloud, Queens Wharf, Auckland
• 2019: Plantation Voices: Contemporary conversations with Australian South Sea Islanders, State Library of Queensland, Australia
• 2020: Mana Moana:Volume 2: Digital Ocean, (17–25 July) Wellington, New Zealand. Many artists were part of this, including Jasmine Togo-Brisby.
• 2022: Declaration: A Pacific Feminist Agenda, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki, Tāmaki Makarau, New Zealand. This exhibition featured Jasmine Togo-Brisby and other artists.

Awards and Special Programs

Jasmine Togo-Brisby has received recognition for her work:

• 2016: Pasifika Excellence Awards – Massey University
• 2017: Pasifika Excellence Awards – Massey University
• 2019: Tautai | Otago Polytechnic Dunedin School of Art – Artist in Residence (a program where artists live and work in a new place)