Emily Kam Kngwarray

Painted at Soakage Bore, Utopia, in 1990

Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) Shop, Alice Springs

Anne Marie Brody, Perth, acquired from the above in 1990

by Anne Marie Brody and Wally Caruana

The incised landscape on the board Untitled (Kam), 1990, features trees and grasses along with a dog (dingo), a kangaroo and emu tracks. These last three are important ancestors belonging to Kngwarray’s country, Alhalker. The sun is depicted on the upper central edge of the board. In several places, there are strongly incised vertical zig-zagged lines. These are formed using a traditional technique in which lines are incised into the surfaces of wooden objects using a sharp, pointed tool to gouge the design in a rocking motion. This desert-wide technique is used to apply decoration to a variety of ritual and domestic objects. It is the central element in Lily Sandover’s print in the Utopia Suite further consolidating the idea that she is the author of the carving on the board that Kngwarreye has painted.

An intriguing aspect of Untitled (Kam) lies in the way Kngwarray has respected the incised marks made by the carver of the landscape. There is a significant, intentional degree to which she dots within and around the incised motifs—as if acknowledging their presence as she might respect tracks and traces in the Alhalker landscape. This care and observance is particularly noticeable around the zig-zag lines and the tracks of the emu travelling from south to north or from the bottom to the top of the board.

Kngwarray’s dotting is wonderfully varied and her soft and subtle palette includes some recessive dark blues on the upper right. There is a preponderance of white and red, the colours of Alhalker. The white pigment is very watery and runs into oblong shapes with internal drag marks suggesting Kam, the seed of the pencil yam. Some dots, particularly those in red, representing ripe seeds, are quite round and solid but others, notably in white are hollowed out. For all their variety, Kngwarray has taken great care in delineating and placing the dots that define her major totem – kam.