Kaylene Whiskey
Language Group: Yankunytjatjara
Website: iwantjaarts.com.au
Instagram: @iwantja_arts
Kaylene Whiskey’s work celebrates heroic women, pop culture idols, and traditional Anangu culture as the blended reality that is contemporary life in a remote Indigenous community of Central Australia. Her practice links the traditional culture of her community’s elders with the experience of the younger generation who have grown up with contemporary Western influences. Whiskey’s chosen celebrities – including Wonder Woman, Tina Turner, Cher and Dolly Parton – are painted into remote desert community landscapes, interacting with native plants and wildlife and engaging in traditional Anangu activities like hunting, collecting bush tucker and cultivating mingkulpa, a native tobacco plant. Created to a soundtrack of classic rock, pop and country music, Whiskey’s approach is rich in irreverent humour, bringing together two very different cultures and generations, inviting everyone to have some fun.