An Awkward Relation is a new exhibition from interdisciplinary artist Sonia Boyce (b.1962, London, UK). It has been especially conceived to be in dialogue with the exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, The I and the You showing concurrently at Whitechapel Gallery.
The exhibition brings together a number of pivotal and rarely-seen works to explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – all of which have played a definitive role in Boyce’s practice since the 1990s and reflect a shared interest with many of the radical approaches that Clark pioneered in her own work.
Boyce was introduced to Clark’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong synergy with the Brazilian artist’s experiential and participatory practice. An Awkward Relation explores the feelings of both involvement and uneasiness intrinsic to an approach that invites visitors to engage, touch and experience artworks and their surroundings in new and unscripted ways. The title of the exhibition is indicative of this complex, often difficult, relationship between artists, works and audiences. It also recognises that while there are similarities between Boyce and Clark’s work, there are also clear differences, which necessarily, and inevitably, stem from the very different artistic, geographical and socio-political contexts in which the artists were working, as well as the specific intentions behind what they were doing.
The first section of the exhibition creates a focused context for exploring the intersection between the two artists’ practices. A selection of works from both Clark and Boyce are presented in a dialogue across time and geographies, inviting visitors to find resonances between their works, whilst also noticing differences.
This section also showcases Boyce’s fascination with, and use of, hair as both a material and cultural signifier. The works on display include over 20 pieces made with real and synthetic hair, originally included in the Do you want to touch? exhibition at 181 Gallery, London in 1993. The works address and confront deeply seated desires and assumptions with visitors invited to touch and respond to the display instinctively and directly. These themes are also explored in the 50 collages from Black Female Hairstyles (1995) and the video work Exquisite Tension (2005), as well as a number of photographic works that document and explore hair through the lens of race and gender.
The last section of the exhibition features the multimedia installation We move in her way (2017). This seven-channel audiovisual work was developed out of the documentation of Boyce’s performance of the same name that took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 2017. Inspired partly by Clark’s work from the late 1960s–70s, there are also references to the Dadaist Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The original performance of We move in her way unfolds organically, with performers asked to improvise and interact with the attending audience.
The installation at Whitechapel Gallery is framed within bespoke geometric structures and kaleidoscopic wallpapers, key elements of Boyce’s recent practice.
Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, 2nd October 2024 – 12th January 2025, Whitechapel Gallery
Whitechapel Gallery has long supported Boyce’s practice, since premiering her groundbreaking solo exhibition in 1988. Other collaborations have included the group exhibition From Two Worlds in 1986, the pioneering Artists in East London Schools Scheme in 1985 and the Music in Museums programme in 2015.
About the artist
Dame Sonia Boyce DBE RA (b. London, 1962) is an interdisciplinary artist and academic working across film, drawing, photography, print, sound, and installation. In 2022, she presented FEELING HER WAY for the British Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Boyce came to prominence in the early 1980s as a key figure in the burgeoning British Black Arts Movement with figurative pastel drawings and photo collages that addressed issues of race and gender in Britain. Since the 1990s, Boyce has shifted significantly to embrace a social practice that invites improvisation, collaboration, movement, and sound with other people. Working across a range of media, Boyce’s practice today is focused on questions of artistic authorship and cultural difference.
In 2016, Boyce was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science in Boston. In 2014 she became a Professor at University of the Arts London, where she holds the inaugural Chair in Black Art & Design. In the 2024 King’s New Year Honours List, Boyce was awarded a Damehood. Her work is in many UK and international museum collections including TATE, London; Saastamoinen Foundation, Finland; Centre Pompidou, France and Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, USA.
