Joshua Searle Gold figure (Quimbaya, Colombia)

The gold figure depicted in my work was made around 1000–1500 CE by the Quimbaya, one of the many Indigenous peoples of South America. Now held in the British Museum, it is illustrated in Michael Grey’s canonical text Pre-Columbian art [1978]. Gold figure (Quimbaya, Colombia) forms part of my ongoing series Stolen gold, which explores Grey’s text along with Pre-Columbian artefacts as a means to understand my own diasporic history and identity as an Australian–Colombian. The work also reflects on the British Museum as a colonial practice.

Joshua Searle, 2023