Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/thelma-thomas-trey

Birth Place

Fiji

Biography

graffiti artist, hip hop/rap performer and recording artist, was born in Fiji. She came to Australia as a young girl, but old enough to have vivid memories of her island, and she now lives in Parramatta. She began producing aerosol art as a way of affirming her identity in a difficult foreign environment, she said in 2000. Although graff is dominated by male artists Trey’s experience has been that “the older and better you get, the more accepted you are. In the end it is really about skill.” She specialises in both graffiti tags and pieces and weaves together music and graff. “Aerosol art is part of a complex Hip Hop culture that is continually expanding and incorporates the four elements of DJing (turntablism), MCing (master of ceremonies or rhyming), break dancing and graff, with a dynamic and very organised network of people that hold regular events.” Trey is regarded as Sydney’s foremost female MC (Master of Ceremonies or rhyming), according to Maud Page writing in the room brochure for Back to the Walls (Djamu Gallery, Customs House Sydney, 2000), an exhibition that included a large wall of Trey’s work. She identifies similarities between local communal culture and her own Pacific culture: “ 'Hip Hop is a culture, like breaking is your traditional dancing and graff is your tribal art. Pacific cultures have survived and still exist orally, the spoken word, oration, recited genealogies is therefore like MCing.’ In Back to the Walls , Trey combines the cultural and graff aspects she has been experimenting with on CD covers and music fliers to produce large pieces . Particularly influenced by masi (barkcloth), Trey will incorporate the distinctive motifs, colours and bold, grid-like patterns in her pieces .” Trey painted legal graffiti walls at Bondi Beach promenade (1997), Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (1998), the Settlement, Redfern (1998), Newtown (1998) and Parramatta (1999). She initiated and coordinated two Hip-Hop festivals in Sydney, both called 'Urban – Xpressions’, and she has been rhyming and holding workshops in community centres since 1993. Her work was featured in the documentary Island Style , shown on SBS TV in 1999. In 2002, with other Western Sydney hip hop artists Wire (Will Jarrett) and Maya Jupiter (Melissha Martinez), Trey was MC on an exchange program with the London-based group Ocean, organised by Information and Cultural Exchange program manager Lena Nahlous. They were to give musical and graffiti performances in the UK, Ireland and Japan (source Artswest March 2002, 10). Writers: Kerr, Joan Date written: 1999 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1975

Summary

Contemporary Fiji-born, Sydney-based graffiti artist, hip hop/rap performer and recording artist.

Gender

Female

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed