Atong Atem is an Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese artist living in Naarm/Melbourne whose practice explores identity, heritage and the discipline of portraiture. Working with photography, video and textile, Atem focuses on migrant narratives and the African diaspora, creating intimate and sometimes fantastical portraits of family, friends and, frequently, herself.
Atem’s major new commission The Last Women embodies the artist’s vibrant style of staged studio portraiture. In this monumental self portrait, Atem appears as a recurrent figure, bearing fruit and embracing native flowers, a symbol of her grounding in Australia. She wears a toub featuring a South Sudanese flag, a vintage kimono, Indonesian batik and African wax print, or Ankara. Atem emigrated with her family to NSW’s Central Coast in 1997, and her work often speaks to her sense of belonging and connection to her community in Australia and beyond. Each prop in The Last Women symbolises ancestral stories of migration and the diversity of the diasporic experience.
The explicit staging in Atem’s work honours and builds upon the history of African studio photography, particularly the work of Malick Sidibé, Philip Kwame Apagya and Seydou Keïita. Like them, Atem uses portraiture as a way to assert her relationship to culture and identity. Simultaneously controlling the lens and contained within it, Atem confidently meets our gaze. Hers is a performance that is deeply personal yet expands into shared histories and collective narratives, like the cosmos that unfolds behind the artist, binding her different personas together.
