Helicopta bilong Lady Carol Kidu (Helicopter belonging to Lady Carol Kidu) 1999

Helikopta Bilong Lady Carol Kidu (Helicopter belonging to Lady Carol Kidu) 1999 contains vibrant figures, outlined in black and dancing in the whirlwind of colour that we associate with Mathias Kauage’s mature style. The painting is a portrait of Dame Carol Kidu DBE AO, an Australian woman who married Chief of Justice, Buri Kidu from Central Province in Papua New Guinea in the late 1970s and went on to become an elected member of the Papua New Guinea Parliament (1997–2012). Full of irony, Kauage’s painting comments on Kidu’s time in office, picturing her travelling around her Port Moresby constituency like royalty in a helicopter.

Helicopters are a persistent theme in Kauage’s painting often associated with the introduction of ‘new ways’. The combination of Kidu and the helicopter in this painting highlights the rapid social, cultural and political upheaval accompanying Papua New Guinea’s Independence in 1975.