Kaylene Whiskey
Ngura Pukulpa – Happy Place
The short video Ngura Pukulpa – Happy Place offers an extensive view of Whiskey’s Country (Aboriginal land), which reigns through ancestral connections as well as camp fabulousness. The work is experienced as a music video clip where the artist’s voice repeatedly shouts out: “My name is Kaylene! Imantura Whiskey!” (Imantura is the artist’s name in Yankunytjatjara). The first scene is a bird-eye-view of the Whiskey’s arid Country, followed by the artist’s entrance fashioning a glittery dress and hot pink wig as she flies above the vast expanses. At times accompanied by figures born out of her brush and canvas, Kaylene appears dancing with her party crew, erupting in joyous pageantry and celebration, and crossing between the borders of country and fantasy. The seven women reference the seven sisters’ story, one of the main ancestral folk songs/creation stories. In this version, the seven sisters traverse the desert on a Land Cruiser (which could be read as a symbol of settler colonialism) in what appears to be referencing the Australian cult film The Adventures Of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert (1994). Here, animals, spirits, stars, and pop stars all celebrate Whiskey, pointing to the complex landscapes of contemporary First Nations narratives. They hail her as an icon, a diva, and a model of strength and power for women of many worlds who weren’t always the centre and the voice of the story. Fun is thus elevated as the highest form of political affirmation of presence and vibrancy by the artist and her community.
Kaylene Whiskey’s appropriation of Western pop culture, American mainstream television, manifests itself in a unique empowering visual language; a fantasy world where a black wonder woman befriends Dolly Parton. Her iconography merges comic style figuration alongside the ‘dot’ iconography of Australia’s Central Desert, stemming from her Anangu culture. Her paintings celebrate happiness and joy as forms of resilience, and indirectly challenge the cultural essentialisms projected upon Aboriginal art. Her unapologetic liberty and life philosophy debunks the paternalistic establishment of ‘White Australia’ institutionality, as it devours its culture. The scripts of Whiskey’s videos are produced closely through her vision and direction, and they almost always include her own voice and narrative as voice over or singing. Her position in contemporary First Nations art has radically transgressed the art field, turning her art and story part of the public sphere’s conscience on Aboriginal representation, becoming perhaps the most iconic living female artist in Australia today, having national and international exhibitions.