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ABIE LOY KEMARRE (born circa 1972)
‘Body Painting’
Acrylic on Belgian linen
182 x 182 cm

Abie Loy Kemarre’s body works reflect the contemporary Eastern Anmatyerr tradition of highly gender specific painting, arising from awelye (women’s only ceremonies) in which paint is applied to women’s upper bodies (and in some special circumstances, to their thighs) by other women. In earlier times the women used their fingertips and small sharpened twigs to apply ground and coloured ochres (red, white & yellow) mixed with animal fats. The colour black was also used in body painting, obtained either from charcoal or over-ripe bush plums. Using other women’s bodies as the “canvas”, there were strict rules regarding which specific designs could be applied. This took place within a holistic ceremonial process, involving not only painting but also narration, music, song and dance. Kemarre references the performativity of women’s ceremonial life in these kinetic and daringly innovative canvases, capturing the three-dimensionality of the human body in movement.

PROVENANCE
Gallerie Australis, South Australia, painted 2006,
Catalogue number GAAL1206508

Abie Loy Kemarre was born in 1972 at Utopia Station, 275 kilometers (170 miles) north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern territory of Central Australia. She belongs to the Anmatyerr clan group and speaks Eastern Anmatyerr with English as a second language. Currently, Abie divides her time between Adelaide, South Australia, Mosquito Bore and Lake Nash with her family group comprising of her mother Margaret Loy, her brothers and sisters and her grandmother. Abie began painting in 1994 under the tutelage of her famous grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre and has custodial rights of the Bush Hen Dreaming which she depicts as a metonymic device in her Bush Hen Dreaming, Sand-hills and Body Painting series of works.
Through her powerful and beautiful paintings, Abie Loy is able to convey to the viewer the sensitivity and strength she derives from her Dreaming... and her country.

REPRESENTED
The National Gallery of Victoria
The Art Gallery of South Australia
The Adelaide University Art Collection
Festival of Arts Foundation Collection, Adelaide
The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission Collection
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Lyon Musée d’Art, Lyon, France
The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
The Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, USA