Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Awelye

22
votes

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Awelye

Code: 7903
Medium: Synthetic polymer on linen
Size: 150 x 90 cm
Price: $ NFS

Seemingly abandoned gestural strokes are carefully worked all over this canvas, giving rise to the Anooralya (Yam) increase centres- the place from which life erupts and spreads forth, and the wild fertility that is always demonstrated after drought breaking rains. The energy that exudes from this composition of line is undeniably strong. Emily’s choice of pale pink is rare , and the splash of brighter pink makes an exciting and confident play of line.

Always linked to Emily’s validity of expression is Awelye, the ceremonial expression that releases the spiritual power that maintains natures’ fertility and hardiness. Body painting lines are fundamental to the participatory role of women in ceremony. This practise is symbolically linked to this work and helps evoke an atmosphere of ceremony.

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.

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