Cork Street Banners 2022: Sonia Boyce OBE RA

Cork Street Galleries, in partnership with the British Council, is thrilled to announce Sonia Boyce OBE RA as the artist for its 2022 banners commission.

The work, installed outdoors, overhead and across the street marks a new public art destination in the capital, above the spiritual home of home of modern and contemporary art.

Work from Feeling Her Way, Boyce’s critically acclaimed British Council commission for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, will be unveiled on Cork Street on Thursday 13 October. It will remain for six weeks, fixed within the forever moving, ever-changing rhythm of city life.

Sonia Boyce: Cork Steet Galleries Banners Commission 2022, Courtesy of Cork Street Galleries, Photo Credit: Luke Hayes

A recipient of the prestigious Golden Lion award for best national participation at the biennale, Feeling Her Way is an immersive installation that centres around the vocal experimentation of five outstanding black female musicians. A central theme in Boyce’s practice, the improvisation, interaction, and playfulness that the musicians display in each others’ presence demonstrates the potential of collaborative play as a route to innovation. Embodying feelings of freedom, power, and vulnerability that are so present in Boyce’s exhibition in Venice, larger than life portraits of Tanita (2021) and Poppy (2021), two of the five vocalists brought together by the artist, take centre stage on Cork Street.

The British Council is pleased to share Cultureshock’s specially commissioned video walkthrough of Boyce’s Venice exhibition via QR codes placed throughout the street. This follows 2021’s Electronic Hydra Prelude, an open-air AR exhibition generated by QR code featuring works by Precious Okoyomon, Julie Curtiss and Koo Jeong A, curated by Daniel Birnbaum with Acute Art.

Boyce came to prominence as a key figure in the burgeoning Black-British art scene of the early 1980s. She was one of the youngest artists of her generation to have her work acquired by Tate, featuring deeply personal reflections on race, class and gender in Britain. The banners coincide with the artist’s exhibition Just for the Record, a short walk away at Simon Lee Gallery until 16 December.

Sonia Boyce: Cork Steet Galleries Banners Commission 2022, Courtesy of Cork Street Galleries, Photo Credit: Luke Hayes

“At the British Council, we are passionate about bringing art into public spaces to improve how we connect and understand each other. We are delighted to present images from Sonia Boyce’s award-winning exhibition to the public for the first time in the UK as part of this year’s Cork Street Galleries Banner Commission,” says Skinder Hundal MBE, Global Director of Arts at the British Council. “We hope Sonia’s work, which seeks to take an inclusive approach to making and sharing art, will allow viewers to take a moment and reflect on what they can do to foster greater social inclusion.”

“This unique collaboration marks another momentous occasion in Cork Street’s rich history,” adds Jenny Casebourne of The Pollen Estate. “We are delighted to be joining the British Council on Cork Street to celebrate Boyce’s outstanding work.”