A vibrant installation centred on the vocal performances of four Black female musicians, ‘Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way‘ opens on Sept. 19, 2024, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in partnership with the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art.
Sonia Boyce, Feeling Her Way, 2022. Commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2022. © Sonia Boyce (Copyright Visual Arts-CARCC, 2023). Installation view, Leeds Art Gallery, 2023. Image credit: Rob Battersby.
Recipient of the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, stepping into this immersive exhibition is to become a part of the rehearsal process, as visitors encounter five colour-tinted videos, sounds both harmonious and clashing, wallpapers, posters, reflective gold geometric structures and a rich display of music memorabilia.
As a key figure in the Black Arts Movement in the early 1980s – whose work was last seen at the AGO as part of ‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art, 1950s–Now’ – Boyce’s recent work explores the intersection of art and social interaction. Blurring the line between artist and audience, Boyce utilizes performance and audio-visual elements, encouraging collaboration, improvisation, and participation.
For ‘Feeling Her Way’, she set out to explore how listening to people vocalise freedom, imagination and playfulness can lead to new possibilities for the future. “My desire in bringing you together,” Boyce describes, “is to explore how you might feel free. What kind of conditions might you need to feel free to express yourself, when not constricted by what others feel you should be, or could be? What does it mean to feel free… and how might you play?’
Spanning two adjacent galleries, the centrepiece of the exhibition are videos featuring improvised vocal performances by acclaimed musicians Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth MBE, Sofia Jernberg, and Tanita Tikaram. Recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London and Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, the singers are guided by award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen CBE. Wallen leads them beyond the safety of their perfected and polished vocal stylings into a space of humour, discomfort, delight, and unguarded experimentation.
These videos play amidst a vibrantly collaged backdrop of tessellating wallpaper, and reflective gold geometric seating. The surfaces of the gold geometric objects – referencing the mineral, Pyrite – reflect their surroundings and visitors as they approach, immersing them in the performance space.
Co-curated by Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López, with Emilie Croning, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Global Africa & the Diaspora, AGO, ‘Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way’ is a highlight of the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. The Canadian presentation of ‘Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way’ is initiated and organised by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. Additional programming details will be announced closer to opening.
“Boyce’s ability to translate into sound and video the often-intangible qualities of collaboration and playfulness, stems entirely from her generosity and commitment to exploring what it means to give artists voice,” says Emilie Croning, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of Global Africa & the Diaspora, AGO.
“Sonia’s collaborative efforts, which always emphasise audience involvement, highlight cultural differences and their mediation within artwork and showcase the evolving dynamics between the artist, vocalists, and audience members,” says Dominique Fontaine & Miguel A. López, co-curators, 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art.
Sonia Boyce DBE RA (born 1962) is a British interdisciplinary artist and academic working across film, drawing, photography, print, sound, and installation.
A key figure in the Black Arts Movement in the early 1980s, Boyce continues to address issues of race and gender in Britain. Her recent work explores the intersection of art and social practice. She utilizes performance and audio-visual elements, encouraging collaboration, improvisation, and participation to blur the lines between artist and audience.
In 2024, the artist received an DBE for art services in the King’s New Year Honours List and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, The Courtauld, and Birmingham City University, UK. Her work appears in the collections of many British and international museums, including the TATE in London, Saastamoinen Foundation in Helsinki, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
‘Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way’ is presented at the AGO in partnership with the Toronto Biennial of Art 2024. The Canadian presentation of ‘Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way’ is initiated and organised by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. The work was originally commissioned by the British Council for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2022. The Biennial is on from September 21 – December 1 at venues across Toronto.
For more information, please visit AGO and the Toronto Biennial.
