Perth Voice Interactive

YOU’VE almost certainly seen artist JD Penangke’s work.

Her murals sprawl across buildings, bus stops, fences, sports team shirts and school uniforms, but this week she’s stepping outside of her commissioned work for her first ever solo show.

JD Penangke is the nom-de-arte of young Boorloo/Perth artist Jade Dolman, who is Whadjuk/Ballardong Nyoongar on her mother’s side and Eastern Arrernte on her father’s side.

Her work quickly became highly sought after for commission pieces by schools, councils, companies and government departments since she started painting murals full time about six years ago.

But that roaring success has meant putting some of her personal creativity aside in the meantime while working to spec for clients, and she seldom found time or verve to pursue painting when off the clock.

“I had not painted on canvas for about five years, because it just felt like work to me,” Dolman says.

Preparing for her first solo show at Blank Walls Studio has reawakened her creative side.

“This experience of the art residency at the moment has really changed that relationship that I have with canvases, and I feel like I’m kind of taking it back and owning that experience more.”

Dolman has titled the show Boybidi, made up of two Nyoongar words roughly meaning ‘smoke trails’.

Smoke features prominently in her work. In an urban environment, smoke usually signals danger, but for Nyoongar people it signifies change, cleansing and regeneration, and smoking ceremonies mark significant events like birth, death or the change of seasons.

“Culturally, what it is like to us, smoke is really like a cleansing,” Dolman says. “To me it signifies change… overcoming change, coming out stronger, growing, letting things go.”

Dolman hadn’t planned to base the show around smoke until she started her first day of the residency at Blank Walls Studio.

“The only thing I went into my residency knowing was that I wanted to paint the walls… and I wanted to paint it like a river, but only in grey.”

As the work took shape, she realised what she had painted. “I kind of sat back, and I was like: Oh my gosh. It’s smoke. It’s like the concept came through me.”

It turned out to be a fitting concept given 2024 is a year of change for Dolman, who’s planning to put aside a lot more time to pursue more of her own individual creative works this year.

“2023 was my year of experimentation and learning different techniques. I did a glass residency in Sweden. I also did a lot of work with pottery, and learning lots of foundations for how to work with that medium. So this year, I’m looking to grow some those skills, and just be able to express stories through multi-mediums, and see how that goes.”

JD Penankge’s Smoke Trails is at Blank Walls Studio, 268 Lord Street, Perth on January 12 from 7pm til late.  

by DAVID BELL