Chiranjika (Chira) Grasby is a multidisciplinary artist whose creativity draws inspiration from her own Queer, Sri Lankan and Chinese Australian identity. Working across visual arts, curatorship and tattoo art, her practice explores intersectional identity, cultural heritage and displacement, striving to connect with others that have a similar lived experience within POC communities. In 2021, Grasby opened her own tattoo studio Halfpace, in Kaurna, Adelaide, as a response to the lack of cultural sensitivity she experienced in other workplaces.
In this Colour Box Studio interview, Grasby discusses the importance of creating safe spaces for community and creativity, her residency at Nexus Arts in 2022 and her current 12-month project with not-for-profit organisation, Guildhouse.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m a multidisciplinary artist working across tattoo, visual arts, and curation. I often utilise my creative outlets to explore my intersecting identity as a Queer person of Sri Lankan x Chinese heritage. This usually means drawing inspiration from cultural motifs and practices, as well as examining notions of displacement and personal narrative.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
I’ve been creative since I was very young, so I think I always knew I’d end up somewhere within the arts industry. I began tattooing when I was freshly out of high school, and at the same time I was beginning a Bachelor of Visual Art. Balancing tattoo work alongside uni was certainly difficult at times, but the challenge of it really pushed me in a positive way. Curation came pretty naturally alongside as I learnt more about it through uni, so by the time I was 20 I’d curated my first exhibition (just a group of friends and artists I found through Insta at a small local gallery – very wholesome). All of this meant that my creative practices were born in a similar time frame in the formative years of my adult life. I don’t know if there’s a real answer for ‘why’ my practices started, I think they came to me naturally as I explored my identity and grew as a person.
Where did you grow up and how has it influenced your practice?
I’m born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, on the land of the Kaurna people. My parents moved here after meeting in uni – my father was from suburban Melbourne, and my mother was from Sri Lanka. They settled into a home together and brought my paternal Grandma over to help take care of me. This meant a lot of my early childhood was spent with my Grandma, who I call Nanna, and she’s an incredibly creative person. Often she would draw or paint with me, and I have fond memories of her making wheel thrown clay objects for me to decorate. I’d say she was one of my biggest supporters and influences as an artist. Even as an adult I love updating her on my creative projects, and visa versa she often shows me a new painting she’s working on or a craft project she has on the go.
My parents have since split and remarried, but I’m incredibly lucky that all sides of my family have been supportive with my career as an artist. It allowed me to take things slow; studying uni on a part time basis, providing more freedom to balance my creative outlets, and keeping me passionate about my work. I don’t think I would’ve survived without the extra time and support!
Tell us about your past creative projects. What has been your most treasured highlight so far?
A career highlight for me (so far) was my time spent as Artist in Residence at Nexus Arts in 2022, ending with a solo exhibition of my work. Titled ‘Aisle 8’ it was a study on my connection to Pan-Asian supermarkets, in particular their sensory elements. It was the first time I’d made a body of work outside of uni and I really can’t put into words how happy I felt when the show finally came together. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone with the types of work I was creating, utilising painting, ceramics, and assemblage/installation. The works were incredibly personal, more than I initially intended them to be, and as a result I kept quite a few for myself and my parents. I think it’s sometimes the curse of being an artist – we put so much of ourselves into our works that we become tethered to them, and it’s hard to let them go.
Another highlight for me was opening my own tattoo studio, Halfpace, at the beginning of 2021. I’d worked in a few different spaces over the years including professional tattoo studios, shared artist collectives, and even my own home. The main thing I learnt as a marginalised individual in the industry is that it’s hard to find spaces that are truly ‘safe’ or ‘diverse’. Sure, plenty of studios love to advertise themselves in this way, but what really matters is how they put those words into action… and sadly many spaces still fall short. I wanted the security of knowing I could be safe and happy everyday at work, and I wanted that for my friends as well. I approached a past coworker, my partner (who was also my apprentice at the time), and a long term friend who was newer to tattooing, and brought us together into a wonderful little space tucked away in our city centre. Since opening we’ve had interstate and overseas artists visit us to work, and we’ve heard firsthand how a Queer, POC, and neurodivergent owned space was desperately needed where we live. It’s so lovely to know that this space is not only helping us as artists, but also providing something really important for clients as well.
Tell us about your current project?
For 2023 I’m focusing on my tattoo career and curation, with my visual arts taking a break. I think it’s important to take quiet moments now and then for rest – in fact my best moments of inspiration come when I step away from my materials and switch my attention to other things.
I’ll be taking on a 12 month project through Guildhouse, a non for profit organisation that supports South Australian artists, via their recently formed ART WORKS program. Serving as their Early Career Curator and Writer in Residence I’ll oversee the curation and installation of three exhibitions in Adelaide Town Hall, and form written responses to artworks being created at a nearby residency site. It’s exciting to take something that I normally approach as a freelancer to a more structured and team-based environment. I’m so excited to learn more over the next year.
Who or what inspires your practice?
My cultural heritage is one of the biggest influences on my work, most importantly the want to connect with it. Growing up I had very little engagement with my heritage beyond food at home and a couple Sinhala words I committed to memory (also mostly food related!). As an adult I realised how many things I missed out on, and how many things I don’t understand about my own cultures. I feel quite lost sitting in-between being part of my ‘community’ as a Asian diaspora, whilst also feeling like an outsider.
Creating culturally specific flash designs in my tattoo career has connected me with so many amazing POC clients. It’s wonderful to share experiences with them and have solidarity through identity as Asian-Australians. Equally when I’m driven by cultural influence with my visual arts and curation it connects me to a wider range of POC artists that have taught me so much, and helped me feel heard as a mixed diaspora.
Where do you feel most creative and why?
It really depends on what I’m creating… But I would have to say at home, on the couch or at my computer desk. I’m a huge home body and there’s a sense of comfort at home thats hard to find elsewhere. Even though I have a studio room at the back of our property it’s often used as a storage zone for materials and forgotten projects (and currently plenty of spiders), whereas inside our house are artworks we’ve collected over the years, our pets running around or snoozing, and the smell of incense or whatever food we’ve been cooking. All of this combined makes creative moments feel enjoyable rather than a structured ‘job’, which is often how I feel when I force myself to sit in isolation in the studio. Instead I’m happy to spend all day inside making artworks with a movie on in the background.
What do you hope audiences take from your work?
I’d like to think that people with similar life experiences to my own can feel a sense of solidarity when they see my work, and that others can learn about what it’s like to be disconnected from your culture. It was incredible to see some of the responses I had to my solo exhibition ‘Aisle 8’ at Nexus Arts – I received a few emails and Insta DMs from people that saw the show, and particularly Asian individuals that felt deeply connected to the artworks. One girl said she visited the exhibition with her mother and the two of them were able to share a moment together reminiscing about cooking in their family home and going shopping at Pan-Asian supermarkets for ingredients. It really moved me to know that others can feel seen and heard by my creations.
What future projects are you looking forward to?
I get so stressed planning my life too far in advance, so for now I’m not sure! I’d like to think that I’ll have another solo exhibition sometime in the next few years, but I want to avoid setting any deadlines for myself. There’s also a few ideas I have for group exhibitions I’d like to curate, but I think I’ll sit on them for a while longer until the next round of gallery applications in 2024. Taking things slow and just seeing what happens I suppose.
Whose work are you digging at the moment?
At the moment I’d say US based Sydnie Jimenez. Working predominantly with ceramics Sydnie explores sisterhood – inspired by their life with twin sibling Haylie who is also a visual artist, childhood memories, and cultural identity as BIPOC in America. Many of Sydnie’s works are busts or entire figures made of clay, and I love that they often incorporate carved tattoo designs as further storytelling. Their depiction of contemporary POC youth that exist with both modern influences and the suggestion of cultural history is unlike any other sculptural artist I’ve seen. They’re taking the types of imagery and subject matter that we’re traditionally used to seeing on 2D surfaces and bringing them into physical spaces, to be appreciated from every viewpoint.
I‘m also a long-term Chloe Wise fan, a Canadian artist living and working in New York. Many of her works contain portraiture with a recurring theme of food and femininity. She studies the connections that Western society has established between food and femmes, as well as the trends of consumption across advertising, fashion, and notions of the excess. Compared to the small scale portraits I create, Chloe’s works are usually larger than life with a sense of grandiosity that’s balanced out by her inclusion of satire or humour. She also brings sculpture and video installation into her solo exhibitions, creating sometimes surreal worlds for her subjects to exist in. You might see a painting of a beautiful woman holding an everyday bottle of Ranch dressing as if it were an expensive perfume bottle in a magazine advert, and hanging on the walls beside it are sconce made of hand crafted lettuce leaves dripping with fake ranch, giving the illusion of salad items as interior decor.
Where can we find and follow you online?
I share my tattooing across two different instagram accounts – @poko_ono and @prototype__tatu – because they’re quite different styles of work. Poko Ono is my main account featuring fineline, figures, influences from Art History and my cultural background, and perhaps more delicate pieces. Prototype Tatu on the other hand is full of abstract, spikey, tribal influenced works that allow for free flowing designs that interact with the human body.
I also use @chiragrasby to document everything from curation to exhibitions and production of my own artworks. It’s certainly a more professional space, but aids as a visual CV as well!