Since 1999, Sonia Boyce’s Devotional project has worked in dialogue with the public to collectively gather the names and memorabilia of black British women in music. Just for the Record presents a series of new works that both extend this project and turn memorabilia into material through which ideas of appropriation, play and chance in the art-making process are explored.
Geometric wallpapers cover three of the gallery’s walls, with their designs created from Boyce’s growing mobile phone archive of found imagery. Transformed by the artist into patterns using mirrors, these designs are crucially arrived at by chance – the result of playful experimentation. Alongside these wallpapers, Boyce presents large-scale photographic prints of fly-posters advertising the concerts, music festivals and album releases of performers who make up the Devotional collection. Shot by the artist on her travels through towns and cities across the UK, the prints raise questions of appropriation but also consider the ubiquitous presence of popular performers in our everyday lives and in the public realm.
A short silent film titled Just One Minute More, a re-animated appropriation of Derek Jarman’s film The Tempest (1979), will also debut alongside In the Mix, an installation of wallpapered sculptures adorned with music memorabilia. Pitting colours against patterns against objects, the sculptures create tension at the centre of the gallery space with the abundance of visual information competing for our attention.
Sonia Boyce’s inaugural exhibition at the gallery is the artist’s first solo presentation since FEELING HER WAY, a major new commission for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Following this historic win, the works in Just for the Record come together to offer unique insight into the artist’s contemporary practice.
The exhibition coincides with Boyce’s Cork Street Banners commission, unveiled on 13 October 2022.
| Duration | 12 October 2022 - 17 December 2022 |
| Times | Monday - Friday, 9:30am - 6pm Saturday, 10am - 6pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Simon Lee Gallery |
| Address | 12 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8DT |
| Contact | 020 7491 0100 / info@simonleegallery.com / www.simonleegallery.com |