You might see some familiar faces when you look at Kaylene Whiskey's dazzling paintings: she often depicts women from popular culture in her work, like Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Cher or Wonder Woman. Set amongst her own community in remote Central Australia, her comic-book style and text bubbles are hilarious yet potent symbols of female power in an Aboriginal setting. Based out of Iwantja Arts – the same arts centre as fellow Aboriginal artist Vincent Namatjira – Kaylene’s work is deeply connected to the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa, or Seven Sisters story, about seven sisters who take flight after being pursued unlawfully by a man and subsequently become stars to remain together and out of reach.
Whiskey’s paintings are, as Taika Waititi describes them, 'a symphony as vibrant and diverse as the Milky Way itself; it entertains, dances, sings, and humorously nudges us to see art in everything. It’s like a warm invitation to a visual realm where everyone is an artist – it’s the ultimate collaboration and we’re all so very lucky to be a part of it.’
The Art of Kaylene Whiskey is the first major monograph of the artist, presenting her rich body of work alongside contextual essays and personal insights from Whiskey herself, discussing the themes, inspiration and subject matter in her artworks. In an extract from the book, contributor Clothilde Bullen shares the impact of Whisky’s portrayals of womanhood and, perhaps more poignantly, of sisterhood.
Image 2: Above, left: Kaylene in Indulkana, with figures from her 2024 Sydney Biennale installation, Kaylene TV. Photo: Iwantja Arts / Do you believe in love?, 2025, acrylic on linen, 152 x 198 cm (detail). Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Photo: Iwantja Arts.
In one unassuming sentence, Kaylene – during the filming for Kaylene Whiskey: The making of Ngura Puku pa – Happy Place (2022) – defines the notion of sisterhood, and how fundamental its impact is on communal, social and physical health, not just in Indulkana, Kaylene’s home Country, but further afield as a wide-reaching conceptual framework.
Sisterhood itself has, in western society, been mostly defined within the familial model of genealogical relationships, but for First Nations and other communities of colour it has always been situated beyond immediate family ties. It is a connective act; the fabric of kinship and generosity, and the driver behind much of Kaylene’s life and art practice.
Tea with Dolly, 2021, acrylic on linen, 122 x 152 cm. Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Image courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photo: Luis Power
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In her practice, Kaylene has always painted people, showing them in various states of excitement, vital movement and dynamic agitation. Most often, these protagonists are women. Whilst localising their movement within a series of frames belonging more happily in paperback comic books, they are never usurped by the cartoon-like landscapes within which they appear. They seem to always be in command of their actions; both in their audience-centred direction, their intentionality and in the ways in which they interact with one another with agency.
This interaction frequently occurs between one another in Yankunytjatjara, Kaylene’s language, and it is within this aspect of Kaylene’s work that we start to understand that despite the incongruity of her chosen characters surroundings, they are behaving in ways that reflect the protocols of female kinship ties at Indulkana and Kaylene’s world view. They are sisters, and they stand side by side, equals as kungka kunpu (strong women).
Seven Sisters Song, 2021, water-based enamel on road sign, 120 x 180 x 3 cm. Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Victoria and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. NGV Collection; Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australia Artists, 2021. Photo: Luis Power
The women that Kaylene paints are not necessarily bound by familial ties but by the constraints of being women in a patriarchal society, with all of its restrictions and gendered expectations. Kaylene likes to paint woman who embody fun, who have shaken off the manacles of what others think they should or shouldn’t be doing, and who are being true to each other and themselves. Kaylene paints women that she admires, whose personalities and actions reveal compassion, generosity and strength. The maiden, the mother and the crone – those prototypes of neopagan womanhood – don’t necessarily exist in Kaylene’s image, except that each female figure embodies all of those things all at once.
The figures in her work depict mostly real women (and occasionally characters) who are much older – matriarchs of film, music and television. Their youthful vibrancy comes from their kinship with the other women in the work and the loving community they find themselves suddenly and compositionally immersed in.
‘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. Also, Dolly and me both really like cooking food – she cooks with her sisters, and I do too! Making food for everyone is a good way for sharing and making everyone happy.’ Kaylene Whiskey
Flying Over Indulkana, 2022, acrylic on digital print on rag paper, 91 x 156 cm. Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Image courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
Anangu women in the community at Indulkana and across the Anangu-Pitjantjatjara-Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands have had to navigate a long history of the imposition of colonialism in a variety of forms; a lack of female-appropriate governance structures or opportunities to manage their own business, minimised access to their Custodial Country, a scarcity of appropriate child and health care, and their voices largely being ignored due to the patriarchal nature of the western governance structures in place with the governments, NGO’s and other organisations of the day, who historically would only deal with Anangu men.
However, First Nations sistership in Australia has frequently led to transformative collective action for social change, and in 1980, shortly before the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 in South Australia, (later renamed as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjarra Land Rights Act 1981), came into being, Anangu women came together to form the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, which began as an advocacy body based on the need for Anangu women to have a voice and representation in conversations on land rights, policy and cultural affairs. Women at Indulkana were represented and continue to be represented on this council, maintaining their ongoing determination to support women’s values, issues and agency within their homeland and with their kin. They embody and enact the communal values of engagement, solidarity and empathy between women to ensure that the framework for being and enacting kangkaru (sister) has never been forgotten or displaced and is woven into the fabric of the very governance structures that allow Kaylene’s community to thrive.
‘I believe in love, I believe in people and that love lives in all of our hearts. Kungka kunpu (strong women) show love for themselves and family. I have love for paintings, telling stories, and music too.’ Kaylene Whiskey
Above, left: Kaylene Making Movie, 2022, acrylic on found book page, 27.6 x 20.1 cm. Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Image courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photo: David Suyasa / Above, right: Photo: Rhett Hammerton
In the video of the making of Ngura Pulkupa – Happy Place, we see Kaylene and many of her sisters and kin from Indulkana getting ready to jump into the back of a Toyota, to drive out to Country to film. Normally this might be a hunting trip, but in this moment all of the women are dressed as characters from Kaylene’s artwork, laughing and talking excitedly and waving Aboriginal flags as they make their way to the vehicle. This truly charming capturing on film of the deep and abiding relationships between these women, and the joy they find in interacting with one another is contagious. The filmed gathering was not one in which formal protocols had to be followed, but one of celebration, fun and imagination, with Kaylene as ringleader.
Kaylene states in the video that she wants you to understand her canvas the way you would read a comic book or ‘read’ a movie. In this way Kaylene asks the viewer to be fully immersed in the experience of her work. In 2023, for the work Kaylene TV – commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain – Kaylene asks you to not only read the work but embody it. The work was devised as a life-size television screen, with Cher, Wonder Woman, Whoopi Goldberg and kungka kunpu all present and able to be interacted with, within the confines of the set itself. Kaylene wants the viewer to understand the joy of being with and interacting with the group of sister-women that she herself is fundamental to – to be a literal part of it, and this is where the immersive and magical quality of Kaylene’s practice really does its work and connects us.
‘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 all coming up together.’ Kaylene Whiskey
Kungka kunpu (strong women) at the rock, 2023, acrylic on page from found book, 27 x 42 cm. Courtesy of Kaylene Whiskey and Iwantja Arts. Image courtesy of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. NGV Collection, purchased with funds donated by Jo Horgan AM and MECCA Brands, 2023
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Interestingly, Kaylene often inserts herself into her work as Whoopi Goldberg’s nun character, a symbol of divine agape or unconditional love for humanity, and it is through this love that sisterhood flourishes. Whiskey’s seven feminist icons stand in for the strength and resilience of Whiskey’s own community of sistas:
‘Our art centre is full of strong women … we’ve all got each other’s back, we support each other, and we love to have fun together too.’
The narrative of the Seven Sisters is one shared across borders, its vast human story spanning all oceans and mountains, states and territories. How fitting then, that when we talk about sisterhood and Kaylene’s depiction of kinship we see there are no delineated borders in her work, where all women are depicted as equal and together.
There is a great deal of rhetoric around ‘communities of care’ but what Kaylene is narrating through her work is her vision of a genuine community of care, in an Aboriginal community who for thousands of years have had defined protocols of care in terms of kinship for each other and for the Country they live and love upon. If we really want to establish our own communities of care then we must look to the matriarchy to do that, but also to our artists, like Kaylene. In Kaylene’s mind we are all part of a joyous ensemble cast, where the validation and affirmation that comes from being truly seen and supported in the ways we need from other women are what defines sisterhood and our responsibilities to one another. These are the threads that we weave to one another and that make our worlds.
Words by Clothilde Bullen.
