RAINBOW SERPENT (VERSION) is the most comprehensive presentation of Daniel Boyd’s work in Europe to date. It provides an overview of Boyd’s artistic practice, which resists the colonial narrative of Australia’s history and interweaves Indigenous knowledge production, transnational networks of resistance and personal family histories. In RAINBOW SERPENT (VERSION), the artist also reflects on these in relation to the architecture of the Gropius Bau.
Image above: Daniel Boyd, RAINBOW SERPENT (VERSION), Installationsansicht, Gropius Bau (2023) © Foto: Luca Girardini
Conceived in close collaboration with Daniel Boyd, RAINBOW SERPENT (VERSION) presents 44 paintings and two new large-scale installations that enter into a dialog with the historic architecture of the Gropius Bau. The exhibition spans the second floor and atrium, emphasizing non-linear connections between the works on display and notions of time and space.
In the playlist, Daniel Boyd himself talks about his work; the recordings can also be accessed via QR codes in the exhibition.
An important point of reference in Boyd’s exhibition is the work of the poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant. Glissant developed the concept of the “right to opacity”, which opposes the Western-influenced ideal of transparency, which levels out and erases differences. Boyd developed a specific painting technique that creates resonances between his own and Glissant’s thinking. Dots of archival glue, which he himself refers to as “lenses”, cover the canvas. Black paint is applied between the dots, which interacts with the lenses to set the picture surfaces in motion. This technique emphasizes the right to a representation that invokes opacity. Opacity interests Boyd as a means of Indigenous resistance to the legacy of European Enlightenment thought and its insistence on enlightenment, transparency and disclosure.
Two installations specially designed for RAINBOW SERPENT (VERSION) cover the windows of the second floor and the floor of the atrium. This staging reflects the architecture of the Gropius Bau in a fragmented, constantly changing image and allows Boyd’s works to appear in constant motion due to the natural incidence of light. An integral part of the exhibition is also a program of events that will unfold like a play on the floor installation in the atrium.
The title of the exhibition refers to the term “Rainbow Serpent”, which is often incorrectly used to describe a series of creation stories from various First Nations communities in Australia, without taking into account the particularities of the respective cosmologies. Yet First Nations myths are as diverse as their communities themselves. Boyd uses the term “(VERSION)” in the title of his exhibition to refer to the diversity of the different cosmologies and cultures of the First Nations.
Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal and Carolin Köchling.
Developed in collaboration with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.
Content note
The exhibition addresses colonial violence. People who belong to the First Nations or Indigenous communities of the Great Ocean are made aware that some of the texts and artworks mention or depict deceased people.
WHERE?
Gropius Bau
Niederkirchnerstraße 7
10963 Berlin
WHEN?
Exhibition period:
Friday, March 24 to Sunday, July 9, 2023
Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 11:00-19:00
Sat, Sun 10:00-19:00
Tue closed
COST?
15 EUR / reduced 10 EUR
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