Kat Bell's work 'The Very Hungry Pelican' screened on Adelaide Festival Centre's King William Road Screens in January 2024.
‘As a First Nations Gudjula and Girramay Artist, writer and winner of the Trevor Nickolls Award 2022, I am interested in exploring my cultures and reimagining them in a contemporary context, while also drawing on my experiences living in and traveling to other parts of the world. Although my artistic practice has predominantly been painting, I'm a keen explorer of many artforms, including textile arts, sculpture, and moving image artworks for projection and film.
I like to meld my diverse experiences of the varied cultural contexts in which I lived, travelled, studied, worked, and embraced, to create colourful contemporary artworks that tell the stories of people, places, cultures, and country. My works are often portraits of Aboriginal people and stories painted in bright colours and bold lines, with strong influences from my time in South America. Drawing on these influences, their vibrant and mesmerising festivals, full of energy, exuberance, and colour; the many traditions and rituals, that are often a strange melding of the catholic belief with Indigenous rituals; and a love for country and the colours that lather both the Australian and South American landscapes, my works blend contemporary and traditional storytelling styles.’ Kat Bell
The Very Hungry Pelican was created for the inaugural Riverland Short Film Festival 2022.