Daniel Boyd
WTEIA3
2017
WTEIA3, 2017
Daniel Boyd’s work WTEIA3 is part of a series of paintings that reference the stick charts used by indigenous communities on the Marshall Islands. These charts were made in order to navigate the Pacific ocean by canoe and thus crucially depict ocean swell patterns. These highly individualised maps were rarely intended for mass use but instead for memorising, and transmitting between the community, the maps were not taken to sea but instead memorised in advance. The artist’s dot-painting style echoes this veiling of information, alluding to lost and suppressed knowledge through colonialism, as well as strategies of opacity in the face of colonial violence.
Daniel Boyd is an indigenous Australian Pacific artist, in his practice he combines references to both Aboriginal art and international contemporary art, displaying a strong political commitment. Boyd’s work often focuses upon the imagery of colonial history and the way that it shapes historical consciousness. He enacts a kind of détournement, adorning portraits of colonial “heroes” with the accoutrements of pirates and looters. Boyd’s painting style borrows techniques from the Central Australian Aboriginal dot painting tradition, creating tableaux that evoke stories of loss, fragmented narratives and lineage.