Elizabeth Babyn's Response to Emily Kame Kngwarreye's Paintings

Elizabeth Babyn                                          Yarn, Tyvek

Babyn              Archival tags for Kngwarreye

Whenever Emily Kngwarreye was asked to respond to her paintings she gave the same response:

Whole lot, that’s the whole lot. Awelye (my dreamings), Alaye (pencil yam),  Arkerrthe (mountain devil lizard), Ntange (grass seed), Tingu (a dreamtime pup), Ankerre (emu), Intekwe (a favourite food of emus, a small plant), Antwerle (green bean), and Kame (yam seed).  Thats what I paint; a whole lot.

 Based on Kngwarreeye's response, which seemed to be largely a meditative process, as she navigated her way through her large layered line paintings; I decided to apply a similar approach in this work.  I began by deconstructing the archival tyvek envelop that was provided at the beginning of this project, to contain the information that I had collected on Kngwarreye.  The envelop later served as a header for this piece, as I introduced coloured yarns in a variety of ways: darning needle, crochet, and rudimentary weaving techniques.