Why the world can’t get enough of Kaylene Whiskey’s pop desert art

Tiny Indulkana sits on the eastern edge of South Australia’s vast Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, about five hours’ drive south of Alice Springs.

You’ll find a school, clinic, community store, police station, church, dusty footy oval and about 70 white-roofed homes accommodating the 300 or so residents. In all those ways, it’s not that different from many other remote communities.

But what makes Indulkana so special is Iwantja Arts, an extraordinary hub of artistic excellence that has placed this tiny speck in the middle of Australia front and centre on the international art map.

We arrive at Indulkana mid-morning. As we step out of our rental, a couple of camp dogs stir, wander over to investigate, then settle back in the shade when they realise we don’t have food.

It’s a relatively mild day for this part of the world, where summer temperatures can climb into the 40s. Even so, it’s quiet, with few people out and about on red dirt streets.

Then we step past the robust security fence and through the door of Iwantja Arts and immediately we’re overwhelmed by vibrant energy and colour. It’s like climbing inside a child’s kaleidoscope.

A half-dozen women are bent over their latest pieces, working intently. Camp dogs snooze in corners or nosy around, occasionally picking half-hearted fights over scraps. Boney M is on the sound system and the air is thick with the smell of acrylic paint amid an atmosphere of collegiate concentration.

There are spectacular artworks everywhere: on floors, propped against walls, stacked on tables. Surfaces unoccupied by art are piled high with plastic deli containers filled with paint in every possible colour. Each painting jostles with its neighbour, impatient to tell its stories.

In one corner, a unique collection demands particular attention.

The instantly recognisable pieces are by Kaylene Whiskey, the latest superstar to emerge from Iwantja into the world spotlight.

Combining pop culture references with her Yankunytjatjara culture, Kaylene’s vibrant canvases are peopled by a pantheon of heroic women, real and fictional. Wonder Woman rubs shoulders with Cathy Freeman; the Virgin Mary keeps company with Whoopi Goldberg and Tina Turner. And Dolly Parton is everywhere.

In this collection of super-powerful women, 79-year-old Dolly is the undisputed leader of Kaylene’s iconography, a totemic presence from whom everything good flows.

Hanging on the wall there are two cardigans bearing Kaylene’s designs – part of a collaboration with knitwear company Wah-Wah Australia. On a shelf is a collection of old tube televisions with Kaylene’s heroes painted on the mute screens.

In the middle of this extraordinary display, Kaylene works intently on her latest piece. Her brush control and technical ability are extraordinary as she focuses on a tiny detail.

Initially, she is reluctant to engage with my clumsy Journo 101 questions. Foolproof conversation starters like “Tell me about growing up?” and “Where do your influences come from?” are met mostly with monosyllables or silence.

Gradually we get around to talking about the detail-packed painting she is working on and she comes alive, lovingly describing the elements – Wonder Woman juxtaposed with a platypus; Cathy Freeman alongside a honey ant and a goanna; butterflies fluttering above a cheeky kookaburra.

Stories from Kaylene’s childhood flow – buying lollies and Coke from the Mintabie store, yarning around the campfire, hunting and eating kangaroo.

Born in 1976 in Alice Springs, Kaylene spent her early years in Indulkana, sharing a home with her mum Lipsey, grandmother Nyuniwa Emily Whiskey and other family, as well as her beloved grandfather, legendary artist and community leader Whiskey Tjukangku, a huge influence on her life.

“He really cared for me,” she recalls in an interview in The Art of Kaylene Whiskey, published this month. “He was always thinking about me and wanted to make sure I stayed strong and healthy.

“Whenever we got to go hunting with Whiskey it was a good time. He was the best at hunting malu [kangaroo]. He was a very good cook.”

Mob would travel miles to enjoy Whiskey’s cooking, says Kaylene.

“Whiskey would carve up the meat with a big knife, sharing the legs, tail, heart and other parts with family,” she says. “When people came to Mintabie they could get takeaway chips at the store or get takeaway kangaroo from Whiskey!”

The interweaving of traditional lore and practices with popular culture began early for Kaylene. Speaking Yankunytjatjara at home, she began learning English from Wonder Woman comics brought home by her uncles and aunts.

The drive-in at Coober Pedy, three hours’ drive from Indulkana, also loomed large in her young imagination. She recalls watching Crocodile Dundee and other movies through the chain link fence.

“We couldn’t hear the sound but the movies were still very exciting!” she says.

When she was eight years old she and a carload of family members travelled to the opal mining town in the forlorn hope of catching a glimpse of Tina Turner, who was filming Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome there.

About the age of 30, she began painting at Iwantja Arts Centre, inspired by years watching Whiskey and her mother, also an accomplished artist, make work. As her paintings evolved and matured towards the bold, instantly recognisable style of today, she began receiving wider recognition.

In 2016, she was a finalist in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) and she travelled for the first time to Darwin to see her work displayed. Two years later she won the Sulman Prize. Three times she has been an Archibald finalist. Her iconic work Dolly Visits Indulkana has been projected onto the Sydney Opera House’s sails.

Since then, a flurry of group and solo shows have placed her firmly on the artistic map here and overseas, particularly in the US. Kaylene has most emphatically arrived.

This month, more than 80 works will go on show at the National Portrait Gallery in a major survey show entitled Super Kaylene Whiskey, curated by April Phillips.

“Kaylene is dancing in many worlds and invites us to join her,” says Phillips.

In person, Kaylene radiates an infectious sense of mischievous fun. A couple of times during the day she disappears, re-emerging each time in a new costume. She delights in being the producer, director and star of the Kaylene Whiskey Show.

After a break for morning tea, which is a fun, chaotic event attended by a gaggle of aunties from the community, who make the most of the fruit, cordial and cake, Kaylene sits in front of one of her iconic paintings wearing sunnies and a sparkly headband, happily playing up for photographer Kate Geraghty’s camera.

As she strikes each pose, she exclaims, half under her breath: “Minyma kunpu!”

Translated from Pitjantjatjara language, it means “strong women”, one of the central themes of her work. There is a direct through line from women drawn from pop culture in her paintings and the minyma kunpu who are the backbone of her own community.

“Me and Dolly [Parton] have a lot in common, we both look after lots of women and children in our families, and we both like having fun,” she says in The Art of Kaylene Whiskey. “Also, Dolly and me both really like cooking food – she cooks with her sisters, and I do too!

“Women do important work caring for each other, the people they love, their families. They are strong for having babies, looking after other people’s babies and raising whole families up. Strong women care for each other and make each other strong, so they’re coming up together.”

A little later, we head out for a bush picnic lunch. The spot is about five minutes’ drive from the edge of the community along a dirt road. In the lea of a nearby ridge two younger women are tending a fire, baking damper in a camp oven. Some of the aunties are already installed, and busy making the most of the tucker.

After about 10 minutes, Kaylene rolls up in a four-wheel drive and leaps out wearing a pink bandanna and matching T-shirt. She strikes a Wonder Woman pose and then starts another enthusiastic photo shoot with Geraghty.

It’s dawning on me by now that a conventional interview with Kaylene – particularly in her second language – is never going to happen, but equally she still has plenty to say.

Photo shoot complete, she beckons me over and we sit together on a tarp in the sun and for half an hour she deliberately leafs through a book detailing the history of Iwantja.

Slowly turning the pages, she weaves together the colourful tapestry of the lives and work of artists such as Betty Muffler, Alec Baker, Peter Mungkuri, making it clear how immensely proud she is of the achievements of her community and her part in it. It’s another revealing glimpse into Kaylene’s universe that she shares with characteristic generosity.

“It’s impossible to spend time with Kaylene and not feel good about yourself and the world.”

After lunch we pack up, help the older ladies back into vehicles and return to the art centre to say our goodbyes. Once again, Kaylene has disappeared. Then, as we drive past the community store, she emerges and there’s just time for one more quick photo shoot before she sees us off with a wave and a broad grin.

As we settle into the trip back to our motel, I reflect that it’s impossible to spend time with Kaylene and not feel good about yourself and the world. Her astonishing work is bold, whimsical, life-affirming, joyful, filled with love … and, above all, fun.

However, just because it is fun and accessible, you underestimate Kaylene and her work at your peril. In bringing together contemporary and ancient cultures, she reveals a deeper truth about the complexity of the Aboriginal experience and the crucially urgent nature of sisterhood and mutual support.

It’s hard not to agree with Clothilde Bullen, who, in the conclusion of a recent essay about Kaylene, says with beautiful simplicity: “She is undoubtedly a force of good.”

Super Kaylene Whiskey is at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, from Saturday until March 9. The writer and photographer travelled courtesy of the NPG.