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Audio description
The photographic portrait is of South Sudanese-Australian
model Adut Akech with siblings Kim, Yar, Bior and Alakiir. It was taken by
Charles Dennington in 2018. It is a black and white inkjet print on paper,
measuring about 33 cm tall by 44 cm wide. The photograph is surrounded by a
wide white mounting and slender dark wood frame.
The photograph is in landscape orientation, offering a wide
view of the Akech siblings. A corrugated metal fence takes up the top half of
the scene and long drying grasses fill the lower half.
The top left corner of the portrait is in dark shade. The
rest is bathed in bright sunlight. The fence of pale steel runs from the upper
left corner in a shallow diagonal, down across the background.
Going from left to right, Kim, Adut, Yar and Alakiir recline
on sun lounges. Brother Bior, a crown on his head, pops up from behind Yar’s
lounge, the second from the right.
The family are posed on retro-style, woven plastic sun
lounges. The lounges’ legs are obscured by, and they seem to float on top of,
long coarse straw-like grass.
Kim sits in the leftmost lounge. Her hair is braided in
cornrows and knotted in a ponytail on top of her head, the intricate braids
draping over her shoulder. Angular cats-eye sunglasses shade her eyes, and her
lips are partially open. She wears a light-toned t-shirt, its lettering
obscured by loose folds, and holds a small Just Juice popper in her right hand.
Her trousers are pale with a wide check pattern and elastic cuffs, and on her
feet are bright white pool slides. Her left leg is bent and she rests her left
hand just above her knee.
Adut reclines to Kim’s right. She has close-cropped hair and
looks up at us over her white-rimmed sunglasses. Her mouth is slightly open in
a rosebud pout, her chin tilted down. She wears a bright white-toned dress with
tight structured bodice and loose flowing skirt. The skirt is cast aside to show
her long bare legs extended on the sun lounge. Her feet are clad in patent
leather ankle boots with stiletto heels.
Yar looks like the youngest smallest sibling, with her head
only reaching part way up against her lounge. Her hair is gathered in two
bunches of tight curls atop her head. She looks directly towards us as she sips
from a juice cup accessorised with a cocktail palm tree and umbrella. Yar wears
one-piece swimmers patterned with a pineapple design and her feet are bare.
Popping up from behind the headrest of Yar’s lounge, Bior is
also gazing into the camera, lips closed. A large crown of printed fabric
perches on his head.
Alakiir is on the far right of the portrait. She also peers
over her sunglasses towards us, sipping juice from a glass through a spiral
straw. Alakiir is wearing a gingham-patterned top, tight, long-sleeved and
cropped below the bust. Beneath this she has on one-piece swimmers with a bold
light and dark toned pattern. Her bare legs stretch almost to end of the lounge
and her bare feet cross at the ankles.
Audio description written by Lucie Shawcross and voiced by Ellie Brotchie
The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.
Adut Akech with siblings Kim, Yar, Bior and Alakiir
inkjet print on paper (image: 32.7 cm x 43.6 cm, sheet: 38.1 cm x 49.5 cm)
Adut Akech Bior (b. 1999), supermodel, was born in South Sudan and spent the first several years of her life in the UN's Kakuma refugee camp in north-west Kenya, after her family fled from civil war. They came to Australia in 2008 and settled in Adelaide. Her break-out modelling assignment came at the age of 16, when she walked the runway for Yves Saint Laurent at Paris Fashion Week 2016. In 2017, she became only the second woman of colour to model bridal gowns for Chanel. The following year she featured in the Pirelli calendar, and made 33 appearances at Paris Fashion Week. She was selected by the Duchess of Sussex to feature in British Vogue’s 'Forces for Change' edition in 2019, which profiled her activism on humanitarian issues, the rights of asylum seekers, and racial and gender equality.
Charles Dennington's portrait of Akech was originally taken for the December 2018 issue of Vogue Australia. Dennington discussed plans for the shoot with Akech in advance, giving him a deeper insight into the model's personal life. This portrait of Akech with her siblings Kim, Yar, Bior and Alakiir is one of a group of images that present a funky and upbeat glimpse of the Sudanese–Australian model and her family at home in Adelaide.
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.
