Daniel Boyd, Untitled (OTHITD), 2020. Oil, acrylic, charcoal and archival glue on canvas, 198 x 153cm. Courtesy: the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.

Paddington’s Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery presents work by Daniel Boyd, in his upcoming exhibition And the Horizon Swallowed the Tortoise.

Michael Do writes in the current issue of Art Collector:

Boyd’s forthcoming exhibition AND THE HORIZON SWALLOWED THE TORTOISE at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery continues this trajectory by uniting three highly personal subject matters. In an ode to his mother, Boyd has painted sunsets that recall a sentimental, secluded beach near his childhood home in Cairns, Queensland. Unable to travel and visit his mother during the COVID-19 lockdowns, these brooding scenes beat with the longing of family to be reunited. The beach is an important familial reference point for Boyd, whose grandfather settled on a beach after being expelled, among others, from his Anglican Mission following an uprising.

The exhibition also includes depictions of the Australian native Bush stone-curlew, a bird known for its ominous shriek. Found across most of Australia, these nocturnal birds carry associations of death in many Aboriginal Australian cultures – a haunting reference to the time of COVID-19. The exhibition also touches upon Greek mythology, taking inspiration from Achilles’ paradox – one of many philosophical problems described by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. While his paradox has been rebutted and purported to have been solved by theorists and mathematicians, Boyd’s interest lies in the theory’s application to assess the risk of infectious diseases without detailed datasets.

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The gallery is open and practicing COVID-19 social distancing measures.

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