Page 69 - 2022-07-01VogueLivingar

THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Dijok (2020).
Patron Saint of Waves Crashing at Night (2017).
A self-portrait from A yellow dress, a bouquet (2022).
OPPOSITE PAGE Teal Weave (2021). All artworks
by Atong Atem.

ew would guess that the fervent applause greeting artist and
inaugural La Prairie Art Prize recipient Atong Atem on a
recent afternoon at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

would prompt a key moment of self-realisation.
“I knew what the prize was. And I knew what the award was.
FBut it wasn’t until we were actually doing the events that it
was like, ‘Oh my god, this is for me’,” the photographic artist recalls. “It was
really overwhelming. It felt, as much as I have confidence in myself and my
practice as an artist, there is so much uncertainty. It made me realise that
I didn’t have half as much confidence in myself as I thought I did.”
That this intelligent and charismatic woman clad in a bold aquamarine
Romance Was Born dress was having an ever-so-slight crisis of confidence
while in the spotlight didn’t register with this member of the gallery audience.
Atem unabashedly combines worlds as disparate as sci-fi, Afrofuturism,
“this sort of 1960s kitsch Americana Australiana” and trailblazing
mid-century West-African photographers such as Seydou Keïta and Malick
Sidibé with her formative years in ‘90s NSW Central Coast suburbia to
produce work that is a confident assertion of her identity.
“I was brought up with all these influences that made it feel like I could
make worlds where the things that I was interested in were blown up to their
largest extent,” says the Ethiopian-born South Sudanese artist and writer.
“And I didn’t have to make subtle things — I love make-up and paint, and it’s

OK for me to create a portrait where my entire face is painted.”
There’s also a clear notion of performance in the act of portraiture in Atem’s
practice, too, with chosen batik textiles forming the backdrops to captivating
subjects, whether it’s herself, family or friends, adorned in traditional dress
and costumes. “It is about the process just as much as it is about the ››

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