Description
‘Kaylene Whiskey is an artistic Swiss Army knife in the world of multimedia.’ – Taika Waititi
‘I was very excited that Kaylene honoured me through her art and I was glad that I could be an inspiration to her.’ – Dolly Parton
‘It’s one of my dreams for Dolly to come and visit me in Indulkana. I love to listen to her music while I paint: “9 to 5”, “Coat of many colours”, “Jolene”, and my number one, “Islands in the stream” with Kenny Rogers. I often think if Dolly came to visit, what would she do? What would she say? And what would she be wearing?’ – Kaylene Whiskey.
Kaylene Whiskey’s paintings dazzle with brightly coloured pop stars rendered in dots and set amongst her own community in remote Central Australia. She depicts female pop culture icons – including Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Catwoman, Cher and Wonder Woman – all connected to the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa, or Seven Sisters Story. These heroines, however, are shown partying at Iwantja Art Centre in Indulkana, South Australia.
Her comic-book style and text bubbles are hilarious yet potent symbols of female power in an Aboriginal setting. A joyful visual anthem, Whiskey’s work draws from the country music, rock’n’roll and Anangu songs played in her household growing up. An in-depth interview with the artist punctuates the richly illustrated pages in which Whiskey describes her creative process – blending Anangu traditions with contemporary culture by painting jugs of Coca-Cola alongside mingkulpa (native bush tobacco), lollipops, honey ants and love hearts.
Edited by the renowned curator Natalie King and the team at Iwantja Arts, The Art of Kaylene Whiskey: Do You Believe in Love? is the first major monograph on the artist. Colourfully designed throughout and featuring a dynamic lenticular cover, the volume also includes contributions from notable creatives Taika Waititi, Jazz Money, Zoé Whitley, Clothilde Bullen and April Phillips.
Kaylene Whiskey was born in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in 1976. In 2018 the self-taught artist won the Sulman Prize. In 2019 she won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for general painting. In 2020, she was an Archibald Prize finalist for the first time. Recent exhibitions include a major new commission for the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns supported by Fondation Cartier; 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, 2023; Aichi Triennale, Japan, 2022 and Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2021. In 2021 her work appeared in bus shelters in New York as part of a commission with Public Art Fund.
Natalie King OAM is an Australian curator, writer and Enterprise Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Melbourne. She has curated three national pavilions at the Venice Biennale: Maria Madeira: Kiss and Don't Tell, the inaugural Timor-Leste Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale 2024; Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp, Aotearoa New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale 2022 and Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 2023 and Tracey Moffatt: My Horizon, Australian Pavilion, the 57th Venice Art Biennale 2017. She is President of AICA-Australia (International Association of Art Critics, Paris) and she has contributed to numerous publications including Phaidon books, Flash Art International, LEAP, Ocula and Art + Australia.
Iwantja Arts is an Indigenous owned and governed Aboriginal art centre, located in the rocky, desert country of Indulkana Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the remote north-west of South Australia. Iwantja Arts is named after the Iwantja Creek near where the Indulkana Community was founded, which is near the site of the Tjurki (owl) Tjukurpa. The art centre was established in the early 1980s by founding artists and directors Alec Baker and Sadie Singer, and Iwantja Arts now supports the artistic careers of its forty plus predominantly Yankunytjatjara artist members, providing access to artistic and professional development. Iwantja Arts is renowned for its innovative and culturally rich projects with prestigious outcomes that celebrate Anangu cultural strength and artistic excellence.
