Dame Sonia Boyce RA is a hugely acclaimed British artist and academic, working across film, photography, print, sound and installation. She creates experiential spaces that explore themes of play, disruption and revelation in which the audience become active participants. Boyce’s practice is focused on questions of artistic authorship and cultural difference. She continues to break new ground through her commitment to questioning the production and reception of unexpected gestures, with an underlying interest in the intersection of personal and political subjectivities.
Boyce’s work is held in the collections of Tate, V&A, Arts Council Collection, Government Art Collection, British Council Collection and Centre Pompidou and Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC. In 2022, Boyce presented ‘Feeling Her Way’, in the British Pavilion at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia, for which she was awarded the coveted Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Her work, 'Devotional Wallpaper and Placards', went on display at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo in December.
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Style Notes
Collaboration or isolation?
Most of my work is the result of collaboration. I invite other people into my projects as the basis for the artworks. All these projects are performative in some way, and they get documented. I then take the documentation and create the final artwork, that’s when the isolation kicks in – me figuring out what I’m going to do with the resulting material. But the beginnings are collaborative.
Conceptualise or construct?
There is always a level of conceptualisation, the collaborative and performative events I bring together have some over-arching reason why we’re together. However, what takes place during the event is always unscripted and improvised. Things, gestures, responses between people – and sometimes objects – emerge, unfurl, create new meanings. From a loose idea to what to do with a surprising image is a continuous cycle.
Which music has most informed your work?
My musical tastes are quite eclectic. Soul, reggae, jazz, punk, new wave (my era), and more recently, when I need to concentrate and stay focused, I’ve been listening to classical music.
Sonia Boyce Errollyn Wallpaper (detail) 2022 Digital print on wallpaper Dimensions variable Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Which work of art would you most like to hang on your wall?
Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images (1929). Most people know it as the painting that says, “This Is Not a Pipe”. I love the title of the work – that somehow images will betray us, but also, no matter how often I see the painting, and know that he is talking about it being a painted image and not an actual pipe, my brain always says, “but it is a pipe”. The painting always reminds me of how hardwired our brains can be about representational images – even stereotypes. It’s also a great painting.
Which museum inspires you most?
I love museums, but the ones I find myself taking pictures in are often small, independent. Like Helston Museum of Cornish Life. It’s full of idiosyncratic objects – often handmade. Everything is close to hand, not separated by glass vitrines. Higgledy-piggledy.
If you didn’t live in London, which city would be next?
I often ask myself this question. I like Nice as it’s easy being there and I love being by the coast, and Amsterdam for its walkability. Bridgetown in Barbados is also great. But I think I’m wedded to London at the end of the day.
What view best describes your happy place?
Being by the coast, being at the edge of a place and looking towards the expanse and rhythm of the sea I always find refreshing and awesome.
What is your first rule of personal style?
Comfort.
Who is your style icon?
Pam Hogg, sadly, died recently. I admired her playful and genuinely rock-star sensibility. She understood colour and drama so well
Minimal or maximal?
I admire – no envy – minimalists for their clarity. I’d have to say maximal, as I’m quite eclectic in my tastes. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Layering seems to be my ‘go to’.
What is the favourite object that you own?
I have a carved sculpture of a head by the artist Claudette Johnson that I bought in the 1980s. I don’t think she did many, as she’s mainly known for creating large-scale pastel drawings.
PHOTO: PHILIP SAYER FOR MUSEUMS JOURNAL, COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF CORNISH LIFE
What’s your favourite bar and your drink of choice?
There are two bars: Duke’s in Mayfair, London and the Metropole in Venice who make the meanest vodka martinis. I can’t decide which one does it better.
Where would be your ultimate place to sleep?
In 1997, I had the good fortune to be in Havana, Cuba, where I had the most intense and fecund dreams. So much so, that the dreams directly fed into my artworks. If I could occasionally pop over, I’d probably choose Havana for when I’m having trouble figuring out how to resolve an artwork.
Chaos or zen?
I have a constant battle with bringing order to chaos. For some reason, to others I always seem calm, but the opposite is true. There’s a lot of frenetic paddling happening under the surface.
