Joylene Reid Napangardi

Women's Ceremony | 117h x 70w | RK695

Not framed or stretched | Acrylic on canvas

Joylene Reid Napangardi was born in 1971 at Walungurru, an area to the west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. She comes from artistic lineage, her parents are Walangkura Napurrula and Kalara Tjapangarti.

Joylene spent her childhood at Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), an Aboriginal settlement 230 km west of Alice Springs. In 1981, she relocated with her family to Tjkurla, a small community in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, before eventually moving permanently to Kintore in the Western Desert.

Her dreamings centre on women’s business and ceremonies. The Women’s Tingari depict her country and the sacred women’s sites that are between Kintore and Kiwikurra in the Western Desert. The sacred and important ceremonies that occur at these sites tell stories of the travelling ancestors who would gather at these places to rest, sing and dance. In her paintings, she will often depict the body paint designs which are used during ceremonies. These painted designs continue to play a key role in ceremonies performed today.

Joylene tends to use traditional colour schemes, using pigments and colours which can be found naturally in the desert. Ochre rocks would be gathered and ground down to dust, with a little water, this makes a paste used for painting either on rocks or body painting. These colours can vary from white, brown, yellow, and even red. Her sense of design and movement shows the close association between painted images and the physical landscape.