Busty Baby Doll
Khristie Barratt
- Sitter: Kim Bowers
- Medium: Screen print on paper
- Dimensions: 64cm x 64cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
- Categories: Female artist, Performing arts and music industry
About the artwork
Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers was a Brisbane performer, producer and cultural leader whose energy, humour and creative vision left a lasting mark on the city. As co-founder of Hot Brown Honey and Hive City Legacy, she created space for artists and communities often underrepresented in mainstream culture.
Artist Khristie Barratt first encountered Bowers in the mid-1990s, watching her perform with the band Spdfg This was an experience so captivating, it led to an interview for Barratt’s own fanzine, Nancy. Decades later, Bowers agreed to sit for this portrait knowing she may not live to see the exhibition. Despite a terminal cancer diagnosis, she approached this portrait as she approached everything, with warmth, humour and enthusiasm. In this screenprint, Bowers is reimagined as a vintage babydoll, surrounded by leopard print and crowned with her signature afro, bold, larger than life, and impossible to forget.
About the artist
Khristie Barratt is a Brisbane based screen-printing artist and graduate of the Queensland College of Art and Design whose practice explores identity, nostalgia and popular culture. Her ongoing Babydoll series reimagines influential women as vintage kitschy dolls, celebrating their stories and cultural impact. Recent highlights include a solo exhibition at Impress Gallery and a Printmaking Award at the Ipswich Art Awards.
