NGV x MECCA: Kaylene Whiskey

There’s a rare kind of magic in how Kaylene Whiskey’s art practice brings joy to so many. In the presence of her kungka kuṉpu (strong women), it’s impossible not to smile, with Dolly Parton and Whoopi Goldberg performing with sparkling microphones upon red dirt, while a black Wonder Woman soars through the sky above, arm outstretched with a clenched fist. Whiskey’s paintings hold a singular power to delight audiences, bringing with them life and vibrancy from the artist’s home of Indulkana, a Community of just under 300 people in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia. Recently, her work has become recognisable Australia over, helped along in 2019 when Whiskey won the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) Sir John Sulman Prize, as well as her recent collaboration with Australian fashion label WAH-WAH, which incorporated Whiskey’s illustrations into a line of knitwear. Now in its eighth year, the NGV and MECCA Holiday collaboration partnership, which supports women in the arts and enables new acquisitions to enter the NGV Collection, has chosen Whiskey as 2023’s artist commission.

Whiskey, a Yankunytjatjara artist, was born in 1976 in Mparntwe, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory. Like many women at the time, Whiskey’s mother, Lipsey, travelled the great distance to give birth in the city, due to the lack of medical facilities within their small town. Aside from her birth, Whiskey’s life has forever been lived in Indulkana. She was raised by her mother and father, Billy Everard, alongside her younger brother, James. The two attended school in the community where they were taught by Angkuna Baker, the school’s founder and senior artist and Elder at Iwantja Arts Centre, Indulkana. Whiskey grew up watching her grandfather, Kunmanara (Whiskey) Tjukangku, paint alongside other significant artists in the community, including Alec Baker, Kunmanara (Sadie) Singer and Kunmanara (Peter) Mungkuri. Their influence, alongside a boom in popular culture and MTV that was slowly making its way to the Central Desert in the 1980s, drew Whiskey to a life of art.

Whiskey says, ‘When I was a schoolgirl, I would visit the art centre and see my mother and my aunties as well as my tjamu (grandfather) Whiskey Tjukangku have fun and be creative and spend time in the arts and crafts with my friends and family’.¹Kaylene Whiskey, IWANTJA, Thames and Hudson, 2023, p. 97.

The acquired work is a series of ten paintings produced on found tourism magazine pages, featuring Whiskey’s signature characters from popular culture, including Cher, Catwoman, Tina Turner and Sandy from Grease. They are dazzling and fun, and like Whiskey herself who grew up with Coca-Cola and TV, but also tjurkurpa (ancestral stories) and bush tucker, they combine symbols of life in the desert with internationally familiar iconography. The background photos are shiny and airbrushed, originally created as alluring images of remote Australia, destined for the coffee tables of consumers and tourists. Like colonial paintings that sold false narratives of Australia’s peaceful settlement to those far removed from its reality, in the tourist photos, Indigenous presence is absent. Whiskey fills this absence, inserting strong female figures, and in one instance, herself, into the landscape, declaring contemporary First Nations culture as spirited, powerful and – above all – present.

Much like in a comic strip, Whiskey’s characters stand boldly within the pictorial limits of the image, with speech bubbles communicating in both Pitjantjatjara and English. ‘I’m Cher drinking cola’, says a Cleopatra-dressed Cher, an image seen in the singer’s ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do’ music video of 1979. In Whiskey’s work, however, the Egyptian Goddess hovers above a collection of red rocks, surrounded by tjala (honey ants) and ngiṉṯaka (perentie lizards). The women are, of course, from Whiskey’s imagination, and appear dreamlike within the photographs. Sometimes, it is more apt to describe them as painted on the landscape, rather than in it. However, though seemingly incongruous with their surrounds, they communicate the lived reality of many First Nations people growing up on Country in postcolonial Australia; the often complex and powerful synthesis which involves both resistance and dependence upon non-Indigenous society. Whiskey positions these challenges joyfully, layering her paintings with an innate understanding of Aṉangu culture and language, with an embracement of forces for good in Western pop culture. ‘My art is for everyone’, says Whiskey, ‘I want to share love, happiness, laughter and togetherness with everybody! Uwangkara tjungu, mulapa rikina! (Everyone together, looking so good!)’.²‘ “WAH-WAH x Kaylene Whiskey” wool jumper’, Powerhouse Collection, <collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/765137>, date accessed 6 Oct. 2023.

The marrying of women superheroes with Aṉangu culture is seen in no greater realisation than in Whiskey’s recurring portrayal of the tjukurpa of Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters). Seen in Whiskey’s Seven Sisters Song, 2021, and again in one of the works within this series, the tjukurpa sees the transformation of seven sisters into fire and stars, escaping an ancestral Jakamarra man who was chasing the women in a love-struck frenzy. To Whiskey, the story epitomises the power of women, and her depictions bring with them a sense of cultural hybridity. Whiskey’s sisters are shown as heroes and celebrities, celebrating ancestral story as one both ancient and contemporary. Whiskey says, ‘It’s a very old and important story for Aṉangu about sisters looking out for each other – sort of like the strong women superheroes that I paint! Rikina! (Cool!)’.³Whiskey, p. 97.

Though Whiskey’s cast of characters is brimming with fabulous figures, the artist’s deepest affection is unmistakably reserved for Dolly Parton. In many works, Whiskey has spun tales of the singer visiting Indulkana. ‘I think I’d take her out for a bush trip and get her to try some bush tucker. … I’d share my mingkulpa (bush tobacco) with her if she wanted to try it but you’ve got to be careful – it can make you dizzy if you’re not used to it! I play guitar too, so maybe Dolly and I could play a song together like she did with Kenny Rogers’.⁴ibid.

Whiskey’s playful fantasies point toward the crux of her message: there is room for joy within the politically charged collision of Western pop culture and life on Country. The deep sense of place embedded in Whiskey’s works give viewers access to her magical world. A world where the complexities of First Nations identities are thoughtfully engaged with and presented with sparkle.

Sophie Gerhard is Curator, Australian and First Nations Art, National Gallery of Victoria

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