We call them pirates out here: MCA collection

Exhibition date:
17 February 2010 to 21 November 2010
Location: 
NSW, Australia
Venue: 
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
City: 
New South Wales, Australia

Shown concurrently with the 17th Biennale of Sydney this exhibition was selected from the MCA Collection by Artistic Director of the Biennale David Elliot. We Call Them Pirates Out Here took its title from a painting by Australian Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd, one of the most iconic works in the MCA Collection. The style of Boyd’s painting is mock-historical, the pictorial language of the occupier. It appears to commemorate a great event, yet the Union Jack has a skull and crossbones on it and the Captain is wearing a black patch over one eye. The artist implies that the perception of colonisation changes according to the perspective of the viewer. An ‘uneducated native’ to the settlers was a respected leader or Elder to those who already lived there. We Call Them Pirates Out Here engaged with such multiple perspectives.

 

Text extracted from Museum of Contemporary Art Australia website.

 

Exhibition artworks