Untitled (SPCFFATS)
2023
Oil, acrylic and archival glue on canvas

Born in Cairns in 1982, the Sydney-based artist studied at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design in Canberra. Of Kudjala, Gangalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung, and ni-Vanuatu heritage, Boyd has described how his great-great-grandfather was kidnapped from Pentecost Island in Vanuatu and enslaved on Queensland’s sugar-cane fields. His grandparents were part of Australia’s Stolen Generations, in which First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families as part of the government’s policy of assimilation from 1910 to the 1970s.

This history makes its way into Boyd’s work through the use of personal photographs, memories, archival imagery, and historic portraits as sources for his paintings, which are covered with translucent, reflective dots of archival glue. ‘Even though the visual language is reminiscent to the First Nations of Central Australia, I actually don’t have a connection to that part of the country,’ the artist explains. The use of these dots, or ‘lenses’, as Boyd refers to them, is a signature of his work and employed across installations, moving images, and paintings. ‘For me the circle acts as a lens, so it’s about perception and multiple entry points into specific ideas of things that I wanted to work through’, Boyd explains.

Excerpt courtesy of post-ism