British artist Sonia Boyce wins Golden Lion at Venice Biennale

Winning piece, Feeling Her Way, described as ‘perfect selection for this time in UK history’

British artist Sonia Boyce won the Venice Biennale’s top Golden Lion prize with her work Feeling Her Way, which combined video, collage, music and sculpture. Boyce is the first black woman to represent the UK.

Her work features videos of five black female musicians who improvise and play with their voices. “The rooms of the [British] pavilion are filled with sounds – sometimes harmonious, sometimes clashing – embodying feelings of freedom, power and vulnerability,” according to the British Council, which commissioned the work.

The biennale’s five-person jury commended Boyce for raising “important questions of rehearsal” as opposed to perfectly tuned music, as well as for creating “relations between voices in the form of a choir in the distance”.

The jury said of the installation: “Sonia Boyce proposes, consequently, another reading of histories through the sonic. In working collaboratively with other black women, she unpacks a plenitude of silenced stories.”

After the ceremony, Boyce told Artnet News her collaborators’ performances were born out of a simple question: “As a woman, as a black person, what does freedom feel like? How can you imagine freedom?”

The work features musicians Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram, and composer Errollyn Wallen as they take part in a studio recording session. Following rooms feature the individual performers, creating an evolving, overlapping soundtrack as the audience passes through the pavilion.

The British Council’s director of visual arts, Emma Dexter, said Boyce’s work was the “perfect selection for this significant time in UK history”.

Boyce first attended the Biennale in 2015, she was a part of curator Okwui Enwezor’s “All the World’s Features” exhibition. In her acceptance speech, Boyce thanked the late curator, who offered her early encouragement.

The last British winner of the Golden Lion was Richard Hamilton in 1993.

Contributor

David Connett

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Sonia Boyce’s Venice Biennale winner to be exhibited in UK next year
Feeling Her Way, featuring videos of five black female musicians, to be shown in Margate and Leeds

Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

26, Oct, 2022 @3:00 PM

Article image
Sonia Boyce first black woman to represent Britain at Venice Biennale
Artist caused storm in 2018 when she removed painting of nymphs from Manchester Art Gallery

Alex Needham and Lanre Bakare

12, Feb, 2020 @10:36 AM

Article image
Venice Biennale: women outnumber male artists in main halls for first time
Black women occupy prominent pavilions with some venues showing work from non-binary, disabled and trans artists

Charlotte Higgins in Venice

22, Apr, 2022 @6:44 PM

Article image
The Guardian view on the Venice Biennale: sensuous and serious | Editorial
Editorial: The latest edition of the art exhibition feeds all the senses. It feels exactly right for now

Editorial

28, Apr, 2022 @5:26 PM

Article image
‘They are totally smashing it!’ Bernardine Evaristo on the artistic triumph of older Black women
Artists, novelists, actors, poets: from the Venice Biennale to Bridgerton, Black women in their 50s and 60s are finally getting the recognition they deserve, says the pioneering Booker winner

Bernardine Evaristo

28, Apr, 2022 @5:00 AM

Article image
Artist Sonia Boyce: ‘Paintings are not born on walls’
The first black female artist to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale reflects on a career challenging the racial and sexual bias behind what art hangs in galleries – and around in our memories

Tim Adams

17, Apr, 2022 @6:00 AM

Article image
Venice in Vantablack: Anish Kapoor’s disappearing act
The artist learned of the technology that absorbs nearly all visible light in the Guardian. As two shows featuring it open, he talks of a ‘stupid’ spat, his new foundation and dismay with England

Charlotte Higgins in Venice

21, Apr, 2022 @2:02 PM

Article image
Cyborgs, sirens and a singing murderer: the thrilling, oligarch-free Venice Biennale – review
The Russian pavilion is closed and you can’t speak in the Italian one. Thank goodness for the opium-smoking cat and the human turning into a mobile phone. Our writer reports from the groundbreaking arts spectacular

Adrian Searle

25, Apr, 2022 @4:19 PM

Article image
‘A glorious cacophony of Black female voices’ – Sonia Boyce’s soul train hits Venice
Reflecting her own childhood yearning for a sense of belonging, the British artist’s multiscreen spectacular – some of it filmed at Abbey Road – is like a music-mad teenager’s bedroom wall

Adrian Searle

19, Apr, 2022 @1:00 PM

Article image
59th Venice Biennale review – the women’s biennale
In a seismic year, female artists take centre stage, while a timid institutional response leaves Ukraine to valiantly fend for itself

Laura Cumming

24, Apr, 2022 @12:00 PM