Treasure Island

Daniel Boyd (b 1982) is one of Australia's most acclaimed young artists. His practice is internationally recognised for its manifold engagement with the colonial history of the Australia-Great Ocean (Pacific) region. Drawing upon intermingled discourses of science, religion and aesthetics, Boyd's work reveals the complexities through which political, cultural and personal memory is composed. With both Aboriginal and Ni-Vanuatu heritage, Boyd's work traces this cultural and visual ancestry in relation to the broader history of Western art.
Working with an idiosyncratic painting technique that partially obscures the composition, Boyd refigures archival imagery, art historical references and his family photographs, forcing us to contend with histories that have been hidden from view.
Daniel Boyd: Treasure Island unpacks the ways in which Boyd holds a lens to colonial history, explores multiplicity within narratives, and interrogates blackness as a form of First Nations' resistance. It provides a thoughtful and thought-provoking response to the current moment where critical dialogues on ideas of community, connectivity and cultural repatriation carry special urgency.
With new writing by the exhibition curators and commissioned First Nations authors, the book offers both critical insight into Daniel Boyd's practice as well as creative and experimental responses to his work.