EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE - ARLATYITE DREAMING (BUSH POTATO)
EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
ARLATYITE DREAMING (BUSH POTATO), 1995
125 x 94 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Belgian Linen
REGION
Utopia, NT
PROVENANCE
Utopia Art, Cat No. EKK9713
Outback Alive, Qld, Cat No. OA654
Lawson Menzies, Aboriginal Fine Art, Sydney, 09/11/2005, Lot No. 15
Private Collection, Berlin, Germany
Cooee Art Leven, NSW
STORY
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was born at Anilitye (Boundary Bore) and began paintings on canvas when in her late 70s. She was awarded the Australian Creative Fellowship in 1992 and continued painting prolifically until her death in 1996.
The subject of this work is Arlatyiye, the Pencil Yam or Bush Potato. This is a valuable food source and the subject of important songs, dances and ceremonies amongst Eastern Anmatjerre people. In this painting, Emily has characterised the roots of the yam in the plant’s full period of maturity. As the foliage dies off, cracks appear in the ground, which trace the root system, and indicate that the engorged tubers are ready to be dug up and eaten. The lines can also be related to Awelye where the body paint is replicated on the skin for ceremony.
Always linked to Emily’s validity of expression is Awelye, the ceremonial expression that releases the spiritual power that maintains natures’ fertility and hardiness. The belief that good seasons always return, that yam ‘always comes back’, is fundamental to understanding the desert environment and therefore survival. A parallel layer of expression runs with the fundamental understanding of Awelye , that being of basic human nature, understanding it, and abiding by the rules set down by society in order that it too, will survive.
EXHIBITED
Tracing The Country, March 2023, Cooee Art | Redfern
ARTIST PROFILE
