Sonia Boyce talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, after all, different artists—and the cultural experiences which have formed her life and work.
Boyce, a latest Golden Lion-winner on the Venice Biennale, was born in London in 1962 and first made an impression by her figurative drawings earlier than shifting to what she calls a “multi-sensory” follow.
Sonia Boyce, Beautiful Pressure (2006) © Sonia Boyce. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2024. Courtesy of the artist, APALAZZOGALLERY and Hauser & Wirth Gallery
Over the previous three a long time, her artwork has been a social expertise, as she has labored with particular person and collective collaborators to create performances, video items and installations. They replicate on a wealth of topics, from private and collective reminiscence, to sound as a conveyor of subjective feeling and cultural expertise, to the dynamics and meanings of area and surroundings, and to questions of worth and energy and who bestows and holds them.
Sonia’s artwork is about individuals but in addition fashioned by them—individuals are her uncooked supplies. She talks about her curiosity in energy and authorship and the shift in her profession, away from drawing to relational and social follow.
Sonia Boyce, We transfer in her method (manufacturing nonetheless) (2016) on the Institute of Modern Arts, London, 2017 Photograph: George Torode © Sonia Boyce. All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2024 Courtesy of the artist, APALAZZOGALLERY and Hauser & Wirth Gallery
She discusses the transformative experiences of seeing work by the Fenix feminist artwork collective, Frida Kahlo and visiting the 1981 exhibition in Wolverhampton, Black Artwork an’ Finished.
She displays on William Morris’s wallpaper designs and the alternative ways wherein they’ve manifested in her work. She discusses the connections between Dada and jazz music, and the affect of Billie Vacation and Ella Fitzgerald, and way more.
Plus, she provides perception into her life within the studio, and solutions our ordinary questions, together with the final word, “What’s artwork for?”
• Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation and Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Whitechapel Gallery, London, till 12 January
• Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Approach, Toronto Biennial, Artwork Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, till 6 April 2025
• AMONG THE INVISIBLE JOINS: Works from the Enea Righi Assortment, MUSEION—Museum of Trendy and Modern Artwork in Bolzano-Bozen, Italy, till 2 March 2025
• Hearken to Sonia Boyce speaking about Feeling Her Approach, within the episode of The Week in Artwork podcast from 22 April 2022, Venice Biennale Particular.
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the humanities and tradition app.
The free app presents entry to an unlimited vary of worldwide cultural organisations by a single obtain, with new guides being added commonly. They embrace a number of of the UK museums wherein Sonia Boyce has had vital reveals, together with the Manchester Artwork Gallery, the place she exhibited in 2018, the Whitechapel Gallery, the place, as we’ve heard, she has a present within the autumn of 2024, and the 2 UK venues that hosted the tour of Sonia’s Golden Lion-winning presentation on the Venice Biennale, Feeling Her Approach—Leeds Artwork Gallery and Turner Modern. For those who obtain Bloomberg Connects, you’ll uncover that the information to Turner Modern has a characteristic on that exhibition, together with a video of a dialog between Sonia and the composer Errollyn Wallen. It additionally has options on the gallery’s present and up to date programme.
