The Divine Femininity of Del Kathryn Barton’s Creations

Known for her quirky, mutable, magically unconventional depictions of people and animals, often in surrealistic dreamscapes, Barton creates otherworldly environments using sequins, markers, gouache, and glitter. Drawing on folktales, personal mythology, and cosmic imagery, she creates stunning, sensual tableaux. Sometimes, her figures grow petals or sinuously emerge from a knot of intricately patterned snakes, while surrounded by stars. The people in her fantastical environments often have elongated limbs, exaggerated features, towering pompadours, and intricate jewelry, giving them a sci-fi rococo fairytale feel. 

A multi-media artist, Barton paints, draws, collages, sculpts, and works in film. Her animated film, Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose, won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film in 2015. Her directorial debut, Blaze, co-written with Huna Amweero, won Best Feature Film - Original at the 2022 AWGIE Awards and the 2023 Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Barton often investigates femininity, love, spirituality, unity, and aging, and Art & Object got to speak with the artist about her craft. 

Megan D. Robinson: How did you get into creating art? 

Del Kathryn Barton: I drew obsessively all through my childhood. Growing up with neurodivergent challenges, ‘making’ became a lifeline for me… it still is.

MDR: Your work often involves layers of imagery and media. What do you feel your work gains through this rich, visual texturing?

DKB: My work mostly revolves within a maximalist aesthetic. I have always been attracted to and comforted by surfaces that are complex and dense, that feeling that a lot of love and work has gone into its execution. I am constantly trying to navigate the obsessive nature of my practice, distilling into realised world-building and narrative.

MDR: How important are magic and whimsy?

DKB: Very important. But, just as important are its intersections with authentic lived experience. I love the challenge poised between resolving [what might be perceived as] imagined spaces with raw human realism.

MDR: You work in a variety of media, from works on paper to sculpture and cinema. Do you feel certain materials are more effective at telling certain stories or evoking certain responses?

DKB: One hundred percent! Media is everything! In connection to this, as a mid-career artist, I enjoy [on the one hand] having developed command over materials I have worked with for decades, and on the other, new creative journeys with mediums that have mystery and unknown potential.

MDR: Why are you drawn to portraiture?

DKB: In all honesty, for countless reasons. In essence, I find stimulus in its rich canonical histories and the challenging simplicity of its nowhere-to-hide format. I am endlessly fascinated by the alchemy of the human face, by what it reveals and as equally conceals.

MDR: What drew you to working in film?

DKB: I have always been passionate about film. I grew up in an artworld-naïve family, but film, literature, and the natural environment filled this space. Film craft influenced my creative development as much [if not more] than the slow discovery of my art heroes. As a young adult, I was constantly dreaming up “moving” works and craving opportunities to work with this ambitious layered medium.

MDR: What did you learn about developing and showcasing ideas through the cinematic medium? Did your film work influence the way you approach your other work? 

DKB: I continue to experience a creatively energising reciprocity between the collaborative nature of film craft and the more distilled sacredness of my studio practice. My core painting and drawing disciplines have always been the inception points of my moving image works.

MDR: How did you approach storytelling differently in working with film?

DKB: Big question! In essence an eye-watering scripting, writing-room process coupled with hybrid storyboarding. I try [as much as I can] to approach film making with the same level of creative control and intuition that my studio life allows for. It’s a challenge!

MDR: Is there anything you want people to know about the upcoming exhibition? Have you explored new aspects or themes?

DKB: One new element that has really excited me are the hybrid strawberry entities. I have positioned them in states of devotional exchange, within spaces that exude tenderness, peace and idealised harmony… my offerings for a world in pain and conflict.

MDR: What do you want people to know about your work? What do you hope viewers experience through your work?

DKB: Tough question! But, perhaps more than anything, I hope to stimulate feeling and energy. My works are my gifts of gratitude for the miracle of living.