Untitled (MBATB)
2025
Medium
oil, adhesive and screenprint on canvas
Measurements
92.0 × 61.0 cm
Credit Line
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2025
Gallery location
Gallery 9
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Part of Daniel Boyd’s series The Mirror Stage, this work appropriates a portrait of the Greek god Zeus to question how cultural narratives are constructed and sustained. By disrupting the image, Boyd challenges the authority of Classical representations, exposing the instability of dominant Western narratives. His practice draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis, particularly the concept of the ‘mirror stage’, which describes how babies first begin to form an understanding of the self by recognising their reflection. In this work, the notion of fractured identity becomes a metaphor for cultural memory, raising questions about what is seen, what is hidden and who controls the narrative.