Turtle Dove: New Work by Becs Boyd

This collection of ten works by Becs Boyd are inspired by a long distance walk in Romania and Moldova during 2025, and the frescos, wildlife and people encountered enroute - especially the turtle dove that migrates borderlessly from Ukraine south to the Sahel.
Boyd’s work has always used icon-like symbols - a bird or seal, a shell, a memory - but in previous bodies of work inspiration has been from Norway and the far north. With Turtle Dove, inspiration is from frescos and a very different, very current, history. This seems natural to Boyd, and the weaving together of her icons is not dark, but notices the beautiful, the dreamlike and the song of the turtle dove.

“The gentle purring call of the turtle dove wove through the weeks I walked close to the Ukrainian border. It wove through the deep colours of Orthodox monastery frescoes and through conversations about war, farming and elections. This body of work marks the recent discovery of an ancient migration route. Turtle doves cross the Ukrainian front line and the Gaza Strip, before reaching the Sahel, one of the most climate-ravaged regions of the world. Drawing on the imagery of 16th Century Orthodox frescoes, this work celebrates the fragile persistence of this bird against a backdrop of violent change.”
Becs Boyd, 2025