Jedda Purvis

Jedda Purvis Kngwarreye is the daughter of accomplished artist Greeny Purvis Petyarre and Kathleen Kemarre. Jedda was born in 1969 near Boundary Bore Outstation in the Utopia region of Central Australia, she has three sisters Maureen, Judy and Jennifer.

Jedda’s artistic career began in the late 1980’s when, as a young woman, she participated in the famous “Utopia: A Picture Story”, which was a community project where silk batiks were introduced to the women of Utopia. The project was such a success that the full collection of 88 silk batiks were acquired by the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, which toured through Eire and Scotland. Jedda’s contribution to the collection was a bush scene where she told a story of men and women sitting at their camps sharing hunting and gathering stories with the children while the other members are out hunting for emu and perentie using traditional weapons. Her batik is full of individual stories which come together to tell the “Bush Scene”.

Jedda, depicts the “Kame” dreaming across her work, which was handed down to her from her father’s family. It is one of Utopia’s most famous stories, which was shared by Emily Kame Kngwarreye ,the most well known and collectable Australian artist of all time. “Kame” or Yam is an important plant and food source for Aboriginal people  in the region, it is also a traditional healing plant.

The women celebrate the pencil yam through ceremonies which ensure perpetual germination for future seasons. Pencil yam is a trailing group creeper with bring green leaves and yellow flowers which spreads across large areas of land. Jedda often depicts the roots system of the yam plant in her paintings.