Deutscher and Hackett

Commissioned by Delmore Gallery in April 1995, Untitled (Yam) was painted just a few months prior to the iconic Big Yam Dreaming, 1995, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and belongs to a small group of powerful, dynamic, monochromatic gestural paintings produced between early 1995 and early 1996. Executed using a dry-brush technique and a palette restricted to reds, whites, and occasionally blues set against either a black or white ground, this phase of her practice is characterised by bold, meandering lines, and such works stand as masterpieces of strength and restraint.

In Untitled (Yam), a single inky black tone is applied with deliberation, sweeping arcs of paint moving energetically across the modestly scaled canvas. These arcs evoke the painting’s subject: the meandering, rhizomatic roots of the Arlatyeye plant (pencil yam, Vigna lanceolata) and the fissures that appear in the earth as the yam ripens. At the same time, the gestural marks emphasise the immediacy and intimacy of the exchange between artist and canvas.

The imagery recalls the dry season, when the root lies dormant beneath the surface, awaiting harvest by local people who dig through the cracked earth, or renewal through rain. The linear surface of the painting ‘lays bare’ the underlying structure that informs much of her work, suggesting the veins, sinews, and contours visible in the body of the land when seen from above.
 
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE