Bodies in a River
These 80 paintings are based on the last photographs taken by five missionaries in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. The “Acua Five” as they became known, were slain in an attempt to convert an isolated tribe known as the Huaorani. The body of work brings to light their doomed evangelical mission within the tragic history of Amazonian conquests and post-war America. Source-images include 1950’s newsprint and copy advertisements, the field journals of Henry Water Bates, South American paintings of Martin Johnston Heade, Sebas’ Cabinet of Natural Curiosities and etchings from the Spanish Conquest.
