{"id":145900,"date":"2025-11-18T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/145900\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:27:09","slug":"the-joyful-world-of-kaylene-whiskey-the-indigenous-artist-pulling-dolly-parton-and-wonder-woman-into-the-outback-indigenous-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/145900\/","title":{"rendered":"The joyful world of Kaylene Whiskey: the Indigenous artist pulling Dolly Parton and Wonder Woman into the outback | Indigenous art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaylene Whiskey\u2019s sneakers are so silver they\u2019re making the light dance. She\u2019s wearing one of her signature jumpers<\/a> and sparkly Christmas earrings. The gleefully bold Yankunytjatjara artist is ready for a party, and she\u2019s brought that mood to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) for the launch of Super Kaylene Whiskey. Forget hushed, white-walled reverence: this showcase exhibition erupts in celebration. Big colour, big mischief, big joy.<\/p>\n

It demands a soundtrack, and there is one<\/a>: Cher, Abba, David Bowie, Boney M. And Dolly Parton, of course \u2013 always and forever Dolly. When she\u2019s painting, Whiskey cranks up the music and works 9 to 5, Dolly-style<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kaylene Making Movie \u2026 in Whiskey\u2019s cinematic universe, she is the director, scriptwriter, set dresser, costume designer \u2013 and joyful, irresistible star. Photograph: Kaylene Whiskey\/National Portrait Gallery<\/p>\n

Whiskey\u2019s life and work is rooted in Indulkana, deep in the A\u1e49angu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. She\u2019s a senior force within Iwantja Arts, the desert studio that has nurtured artists such as Vincent Namatjira, Betty Muffler and Tiger Yaltangki. Walking in her family\u2019s footsteps (both her mother and grandfather were artists), Whiskey has spent decades painting the pop-culture icons she grew up with in the 80s and early 90s: the heroes of drive-in movies, music videos and comic books \u2013 everything from Mad Max to Monkey Magic. But she doesn\u2019t step into their worlds; they drop into hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m listening to music with my friends I might think: what if Dolly Parton<\/a> and Tina Turner came and joined our party here in Indulkana?\u201d Whiskey says. \u201cIn my paintings I can make that happen!\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition starts in front of a giant TV set and inside is Whiskey\u2019s living room \u2013 it\u2019s a portal from Kamberri to Indulkana. Whiskey with curator April Phillips. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

And she does. Her idols are kicking the footy, picking bush tomatoes and noodling for opals in the rock piles of Coober Pedy. They\u2019re folded into the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa (the Seven Sisters songline) as naturally as old friends: A\u1e49angu storytelling and pop-culture storytelling together. There\u2019s a great deal of play here, but also power: a declaration of who gets to be iconic, and on whose terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Kaylene\u2019s world, her universe,\u201d explains April Phillips, the exhibition curator. \u201cThere are just so many layers of intention.\u201d That universe is decidedly cinematic: Whiskey is the director, the scriptwriter, the set dresser, the costume designer \u2013 and a joyful, irresistible star.<\/p>\n

Kungka kunpu \u2026 Whiskey doesn\u2019t step into the worlds of pop-culture icons she grew up with; they drop into hers. Photograph: Kaylene Whiskey\/National Portrait Gallery<\/p>\n

I\u2019m getting a special backstage tour. The final paintings have only just been hung, and Whiskey and Phillips are both fizzing with delight. They make a great team. Whiskey goes straight for the details \u2013 the small irreverent pleasures she planted for herself and still can\u2019t resist (when I play back the audio of our tour, she\u2019s mostly chuckling). Phillips marvels at the sweep of it all: the scale of what Whiskey is saying, not only about her place in the world but about portraiture itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Kaylene wants to represent and immortalise is so different from the classical conventions that it almost creates a new pathway,\u201d Phillips tells me, her eyes alight. \u201cIt\u2019s a sense of possibility. Each canvas might sit like a freeze-frame, but everything is in flux: people shifting, stories moving. You always have this sense that something has happened, and about to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u1e49angu and pop-culture storytelling come together. Photograph: Rhett Hammerton<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true. You can imagine Whiskey\u2019s pictures coming to life at night, when the gallery is closed. And the exhibition\u2019s opening move feels like proof. It begins in front of a giant television set, an old-school 1980s dial box. Kaylene\u2019s heroes have busted out of the screen and into the gallery \u2013 life-sized. Wonder Woman soars overhead. Tina Turner swaggers; Catwoman slinks; Dolly strums her guitar. And inside the TV is Kaylene\u2019s living room. It\u2019s the perfect entry point: a portal from Kamberri to Indulkana.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come with a brain full of diligent questions, but the moment we step beyond the television, they scatter. I feel like Charlie Bucket entering the technicolour riot of Willy Wonka\u2019s chocolate factory: the whole world gone vividly, impossibly alive. Lollipops and love hearts tumble in beside plates of bush tucker \u2013 ripe quandongs and mingkulpa (bush tobacco). Gardens bloom and fruit under the vast blue of Sky Country. Honey ants patrol the borders of paintings, their abdomens syrup-heavy. There\u2019s enough Diet Coke for everyone and the Christmas stockings are full. Michael Jackson is dancing with a water snake and making it rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s strong and healthy in Kaylene\u2019s world,\u201d says Phillips. \u201cCountry is healthy and thriving and abundant. Love is abundant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kaylene is on TV \u2026 like the technicolour riot of Willy Wonka\u2019s chocolate factory, where the world is vividly alive. Photograph: Kaylene Whiskey\/National Portrait Gallery<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the watchword for this exhibition: abundance. And from this abundance, an argument emerges: portraits can be as full as the lives they honour. Nobody is ever alone in a Whiskey portrait. They arrive with company \u2013 animals, friends, food, objects, story, music \u2013 all the things that make a life a life.<\/p>\n

The NPG has commissioned a major new work: a Cathy Freeman triptych, an exultant victory sequence. Whiskey doesn\u2019t simply honour her; she elevates her to superhero, the Aboriginal flag her cape, running so fast her feet have left the ground. But the portrait that stops me is Kaylene\u2019s canon-busting take on Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Whiskey\u2019s goddess is an A\u1e49angu girl \u2013 not gawked at by men, not claimed or framed by them, but held up, witnessed, supported by extraordinary women. A rebirth. A reclamation. And a love letter to Kungka Ku\u1e49pu (strong women).<\/p>\n

Whiskey\u2019s world is full of Kungka Ku\u1e49pu, and they\u2019re busy: they\u2019re entrepreneurs and gardeners, nurturers and problem-solvers \u2013 driving cars, making cash, winning medals, tending Country, growing food, surfing impossible waves, staring down sharks. Making art. Making music. They\u2019re never pitted against each other. No competition, no scarcity, no hierarchy. Just getting on with the work of living well and holding the world together.<\/p>\n

Flying over Indulkana \u2026 \u2018Kaylene\u2019s in charge. She\u2019s in charge of her image. She\u2019s in charge of who\u2019s creating the story.\u2019 Photograph: Kaylene Whiskey\/National Portrait Gallery<\/p>\n

Whiskey\u2019s portraits are anchored in self-determination. They thrum \u2013 joyfully \u2013 with agency. \u201cKaylene\u2019s in charge,\u201d says Phillips. \u201cShe\u2019s in charge of her image. She\u2019s in charge of who\u2019s taking the portrait, who\u2019s creating the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist doesn\u2019t say much. She lets her paintings speak for themselves \u2013 revels in the vicarious joy of watching other people fall into her lush and generous world (and worldview). But to end our tour, she leads me to a video installation. On screen, she\u2019s airborne \u2013 arms out, legs kicking, soaring to the sound of Parton\u2019s Jolene. Cape streaming out behind her. Every inch a superhero. I nudge her: \u201cYou\u2019re flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep,\u201d she says, grinning at the screen. \u201cI\u2019m flying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaylene Whiskey\u2019s sneakers are so silver they\u2019re making the light dance. She\u2019s wearing one of her signature jumpers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-145900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}