Kaylene Whiskey, Dolly visits Indulkana, 2020, acrylic on linen with plastic jewels, 168 x 198.5 x 2 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Purchased with funds provided by the Aboriginal Art Collection Benefactors 2020, Kaylene Whiskey, Image Art Gallery of New South Wales Photo: NPG.
Under the slogan ‘from comic to canvas’, Kaylene Whiskey from her remote community in Indulkana on the APY lands at the Iwantja Arts Centre, creates her colourful hybrid world where Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Wonder Woman, Whoopi Goldberg and Cat Woman pop in to gather bush tucker or to wish Kaylene Whiskey a happy birthday.
It is a fantasy world populated by strong women who celebrate an unlikely reality. If her younger contemporary and fellow First Nations artist, Vincent Namatjira, invites himself to improbable gatherings with royalty and celebrities frequently to make a point about discrimination and being locked out of high society, Kaylene Whiskey’s intentions appear to be more benign.
Her paintings are full of colour, fun and humour. They are highly accessible and will appeal to those who like to have a chuckle at this colourful mix of pop icons and life in one of the most remote places on earth.
Kaylene Whiskey, Flying over Indulkana, 2022. Photo: NPG
Kaylene Whiskey employs her irreverent humour to create a festive jamboree where the icons of American pop culture share the stage with American fast foods and soft drinks, as well as Aṉangu culture and strong kungkas (women), who together hunt and collect bush tucker.
There is an omnipresent celebration of the artist herself, who appears as a larger-than-life character in the paintings and films she has created.
Kaylene Whiskey is a very autobiographical artist who creates a seductive narrative of a girl brought up on comics, television and pop music, who fantasises about how her pop heroines would fit in with her remote community.
Kaylene Whiskey, Kaylene is on TV, 2023. Photo: NPG
In art history, a memorable showstopper was a huge Expressionist canvas by the Belgian artist James Ensor, Christ’s Entry into Brussels (1889), at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Kaylene Whiskey, in a similar expressive manner, creates a similarly improbable scenario, where Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Turner, Elton John and David Bowie are welcomed to country while ABBA sing in the background.
Brightly coloured, largely frontally posed figures, generally against a full-colour background, are surrounded by speech balloons and little attributes, such as colourful Rainbow Serpents, parrots, ghetto blasters, Coca-Cola bottles, KFC boxes, hamburgers, and a stray goanna or wombat making its way home.
It is a colourful and joyous narrative that will keep many viewers engaged, from the youngest to the most senior.
Kaylene Whiskey. Photo: Rhett Hammerton
The 49-year-old artist has been lionised by the Australian museum scene, with recent images from her work screened on the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
The National Portrait Gallery exhibition is the largest show of Kaylene Whiskey’s work to be ever assembled, with over 80 exhibits, including the new triptych Super Cathy, Lighting the torch, Super Cathy, Running the race and Super Cathy, The winner, all painted this year, with acrylics, as are almost all of the works on display.
Kaylene Whiskey observes that she and her family saw Cathy Freeman run in the Olympics in 2000 on television and viewed her as a hero for Aboriginal people, a strong woman and a superhero.
Kaylene Whiskey, Seven Sistas Story, 2021, Photo: NPG
One of the big highlights of the show for me, were the three videos – Kaylene TV, 2020, Ngura Pukulpa – Happy Place, 2021, and Dolly’s Song, 2019, where Kaylene Whiskey’s art seems to run a full circle from cartoon to canvas and from canvas back into an animated cartoon. There is plenty of humour, and in some of the montages, glimpses of sublime beauty.
Super Kaylene Whiskey is the ultimate feel-good show in gallery exhibitions. It is sprinkled with fun, laughter and joy and invites us to interpret it on any level we choose. As the curator of this exhibition, April Phillips notes, “Kaylene is dancing in many worlds and invites us to join her.”
Super Kaylene Whiskey at the National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, is open until 9 March 2026, daily from 10 am to 5 pm. Admission charges apply.
