Through generations of artistic tradition from the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, journeying south to Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and sweeping across the southern Gibson desert, the exhibition ‘North by North-West’ at QAG, which opened in February 2023, traces the distinctive regional flavours that speak to both ancestral narratives and current social concerns. The Collection exhibition will soon undergo a second rotation of works, which will see significant new acquisitions on display — some for the first time, write Katina Davidson and Adam Ford.

As a leading artist at the Iwantja Arts Centre and having enjoyed significant commercial success over the past few years, Yankunytjatjara artist Kaylene Whiskey is all too familiar with the demands of being a working woman. The painting Working 9 to 5 2022 — which joined the Collection in 2023 through the generosity of the Future Collective — takes its title from the popular 1980 Dolly Parton song. (Parton appears frequently throughout Whiskey’s practice.)

The ancient Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa (Seven Sisters Dreaming) is a widely distributed story or songline that spans a great distance across continental Australia, in which the constellation Pleiades represents the Sisters, who are chased by the villainous Wati Nyiru (the constellation Orion). In this reimagining, Whiskey has cast the beloved country singer alongside six other kungka kunpas (strong women): Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris Van Cartier from the 1992 film Sister Act; Olivia Newton-John as Sandy ‘Sandra Dee’ Olsson from the 1978 film Grease; a figure, possibly Cher (another singer Whiskey paints); Tina Turner; a black Superwoman; and Halle Berry as Catwoman (from the 2004 film of the same name).

Painted on a large, reclaimed road sign that once directed motorists to the Iwantja Arts Centre, Whiskey retains elements of the original sign, including ‘Iwantja Arts’ at the top. A dotted banner unfurls across the scene, with the word ‘working’ over the sign’s original ‘Open Mon-Fri’, so that it stops short of the ‘9-5’; here, Whiskey cleverly spells out both the title of the artwork and of Parton’s hit song. The singer becomes the perfect figurehead for collective female triumph of the Seven Sisters over Wati Nyiru; and by pulling together the symbolic associations Parton’s song commands, Whiskey makes a clever, playful and celebratory commentary on being a hard-working, strong, female Aboriginal artist. At top right, the phrase ‘kungka kunpu rikina wiru’ translates roughly as ‘lovely, amazing, strong women’.¹ At every turn, Whiskey redirects attention towards female empowerment — her Seven Sisters sing, play and party in a well-deserved celebration of the end of a long working day — and extends the invitation to her ‘sistas’ all over the world. The work’s inclusion in ‘North by North-West’ puts it on public display for the first time.

Generations of creatives have been inspired by Western Aranda artist and elder Albert Namatjira (1902–59) and share his story and aesthetic sensibility. The present-day Hermannsburg School artists — who produce Western-style landscapes of central Australia — frequently experiment with palettes and materials. Several watercolours by artists from the School form part of ‘North by North-West’s refresh, including a group of three works by Benita Clements, gifted to the Gallery in 2021 by longstanding benefactor Glenn Manser. As Albert Namatjira’s greatgranddaughter, Clements uses this family legacy to share bold and playful stories of her homelands with a signature political undertone. Here, she subverts the iconography of internationally recognisable fast-food franchises to interrogate social issues within her community and the impact of globalisation on remote Indigenous communities.

Enjoying some visual parallels with the figures and humour in Kaylene Whiskey’s Working 9 to 5, these works depict brazenly erected road signs within vibrantly painted central Australian landscapes. McDonald’s becomes West MacDonnell’s 2020 — after the ranges made famous by her greatgrandfather — and features a drive-thru sign with the ‘golden arches’ cleverly inverted to create a new insignia. Popular with generations of artists, Clements’s raw contemporary take on this iconic landscape speaks to the commercialisation and destruction that tourist trails can bring. MOBWAY 2020 re-deploys the Subway slogan ‘Eat fresh’ to promote the traditional eating practices of Western Aranda people; and Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes Kunga’s Fried Kanga 2020, the smiling Colonel Sanders replaced by an Aranda man serving up slow-cooked kangaroo tail — a central Australian delicacy. Clements’s works are complemented in the display by two more traditional paintings of the West MacDonnell Ranges by Nebo Namatjira — both earlier gifts from Glenn Manser.

Several works by Tiwi artists also update the Collection exhibition. Three woodcut prints by Conrad Tipungwuti are the result of Japanese-style printing workshops held on the Tiwi Islands by Northern Editions Printmaking Studio staff in 2009–10.² Tipungwuti’s prints are representative of one of the two main themes in Tiwi art: kulama, and designs related to the Kulama Yam ceremony. The volume of works referencing kulama is testament to the importance of this ritual to the traditional, spiritual and everyday lives of Tiwi people. Most Tiwi designs are abstract, but kulama designs almost always feature a central circular motif, or duplicates of this.

While Tiwi art is distinctive, with its own traditional aesthetic inspiration, the culture permits a degree of individual expression, which results in greater visual variation. Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, for example, is known for working outside Tiwi convention, depicting objects, ancestors and personal stories in her own looser, more minimal jilamara (design). Both in its decorative line and dot background and in its subject matter, Apuatimi’s Pamajini (Armbands) 1993 reflects its derivation from traditional Tiwi artistic practices. Two more works by Tiwi artists — Kitty Kantilla’s abstract Parlini jilamara (Old design) 1993 and Maryanne Mungatopi’s aquatint etching Objects used in Kulama ceremony 2000 — also enhance the second rotation of ‘North by North-West’.

Katina Davidson (Yuggera/Kullilli) is Curator, Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA, and Adam Ford (Noongar) is Assistant Curator, Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA. ‘North by North-West’ is in Galleries 1 and 2, QAG, until 29 September 2024. The works mentioned here are on display from March 2024.

Endnotes

1. Email with Heath Aarons, Iwantja Arts Centre, 9 February 2023.
2. Northern Editions’ workshop manager Jacqueline F Gribbin lived in Japan for 11 years, where she worked in a variety of printmaking studios and acquired knowledge in different Japanese techniques.