ELIZABETH KUNOTH - GATHERING SEEDS AT MY GRANDMOTHERS COUNTRY
ELIZABETH KUNOTH
GATHERING SEEDS AT MY GRANDMOTHERS COUNTRY, 2013
122 x 122cm
Acrylic on Belgian Linen
REGION
Urapuntja/Amengernterneah (Utopia) NT
PROVENANCE
Lauraine Diggens Fine Art, Melbourne, Vic
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
STORY
Elizabeth’s paintings are an intimate record of her deep connection to Anmatyerr Country in Utopia, Central Australia. At their heart lies the Bush Yam (Ipomoea costata), a plant of great significance to her community. More than a food source, the yam carries layers of cultural, medicinal, and ceremonial meaning, woven into the stories passed down through generations.
On canvas, Elizabeth captures the plant’s remarkable seasonal transformation. After the change of seasons or an unexpected desert rain, the yam bursts into flower, carpeting the arid earth with delicate blooms. These brief moments turn the desert into a living tapestry of colour, from the soft blush of new flowers to the golden ochres of seed-laden vines.
Her compositions are built from intricate layers of dots and lines, echoing the yam’s roots spreading underground and the seed patterns scattered across the surface. Each mark is both an observation of the plant’s life cycle and a symbolic reference to its role in sustaining her people—providing nourishment, healing remedies, and a link to ancestral law.
While her works can be enjoyed for their luminous abstraction and rhythmic movement, they also operate as cultural maps, recording the knowledge, memory, and seasonal cycles that bind people and Country together.
EXHIBITED
Finaliast in 2013 Blake Prize, exhibited College of Fine Arts Gallery, NSW
ARTIST PROFILE
