Daniel Boyd’s work re-imagines historical moments as they have been documented in archival photographs or interpreted through popular culture. His artistic practice engages with western aesthetics and the colonial history of the Asia-Pacific region, and in recent years has captured the attention of international curators. His work was selected for inclusion in the major international exhibition All the World’s Futures in
the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and The Future is Already Here – It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed, the 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016).

Untitled (LMD) (2015) continues the artist’s investigation into the dynamics of personal presentation and representation, following the historical event of first European contact in the Pacific. More specifically, the work employs and transforms European archival imagery to explore the influence of missionary dress upon women’s costume in the region. In this painting, a posed female figure gestures towards the impact
of Christian mores and conventions upon the local people, alluding to social and political tensions that endure within Pacific communities today.