ALALGURA (YAM) IV, 1995
EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
synthetic polymer paint on linen
122.0 x 214.0 cm
signed verso: emily
inscribed verso: artist’s name and Delmore Gallery cat. 95F055
Delmore Gallery, Alice Springs
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne (stamped verso)
Private collection, Melbourne
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Recent Paintings, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne 6 - 30 March 1996
Emily Kame Kngwarreye: Alhalkere, Paintngs from Utopia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 20 February - 13 April 1998; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 May -19 July 1998; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 22 September - 22 November 1998, cat. 78
The White Show 2, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, September 2001, cat. 19
Utopia: The genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, 26 February - 13 April 2008; The National Art Centre, Tokyo, Japan, 28 May - 28 July 2008; National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 22 August - 12 October 2008, cat. Y-13, p. 198, pl. Y-13 (illus.)
This significant work is the fourth of Emily Kngwarreye’s larger works of this style, painted in the winter of 1995.
Alalgura (Yam) IV is a raw and unadorned ‘putting down’ of Emily’s story. To Emily this linear style was both signature and painting. It was arguable her strongest expression of ownership and custodianship of country, and the knowledge earned through ritual process and graduation to the most senior ritual woman of her country, Alalgura (Alhalkere).
Alalgura (Yam) IV consists of one piercing voice, supported by infinite spaces, punctuated by suspended lines. The line traces the path formed by the yam’s random growth, and thence the progress of the forager digging to find its sustenance. The path seems arduous. Its starkness suggests a desperate season, a dormant harvest in the bitter desert winter awaiting the embellishment and relief of warmth, moisture and colour.
JANET HOLT