Devotional II

Sonia Boyce (1962 - )

Exterior fine art full colour print on self-adhesive vinyl

2005

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© Sonia Boyce. All rights reserved, DACS 2022.

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  • About the work

    Devotional II is a site-specific version of an earlier work by Sonia Boyce which is also in the Government Art Collection. In 2005 it was installed in the European Union Headquarters at the newly renovated Berlaymont building in Brussels. Extending nine metres high on an internal column, it spans a height of three floors. Totem-like, its physical presence and array of colours make it highly visible to everyone using the building.

    This multi-coloured monumental list features the names of black female singers, including the jazz singer Elisabeth Welch presented at the top of the work in the pre-1960s section, to Yazz in the 1980s and Lisa Maffia in the early 2000s. Boyce accumulated names and dates of the singers over several years through conversations with different people about their favourite black female singers. The chronological listing offering a different perspective of popular music.

    Sonia Boyce studied art at East Ham College and Stourbridge College of Art until 1983. Since the mid 1980s she has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and several monographs about her work have been published in recent years. In March 2004 she was awarded the Nesta Three Year Fellowship.

  • About the artist
    Sonia Boyce MBE is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who lives and works in London. While studying at Stourbridge College of Art from 1980-83, she met and collaborated with artists from the BLK Art Group (Keith Piper, Donald Rodney, Marlene Smith and Eddie Chambers), an informal but highly influential group who organised and promoted exhibitions and events that addressed the experience of Black communities in Britain. Boyce’s early work, primarily large pastel drawings and photographic collages, addressed issues of race and gender in the media and of daily life. In the late 1980s, Boyce incorporated a wider use of media in her work, including photography, collage, film, print, drawing, installation and sound. This shift also involved greater collaborative participation with audiences and communities, placing more emphasis on the art resulting from these collaborations. Boyce has exhibited her work extensively both in the UK and internationally. Key exhibitions include 'Five Black Women', African Centre, London (1983); 'Sonia Boyce: For you, only you', Magdalen College, Oxford and subsequent UK venues (2007–08); and at 'All the World’s Futures', 56th Venice Biennale (2015). In 2007, Boyce was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the arts. She is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Middlesex University, London and Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London. Boyce will represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale, for the 59th International Art Exhibition in 2022, the first Black British woman to have achieved this honour.
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  • Details
    Title
    Devotional II
    Date
    2005
    Medium
    Exterior fine art full colour print on self-adhesive vinyl
    Dimensions
    height: 946.00 cm, width: 185.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Commissioned from the artist, December 2005
    Provenance
    the artist (commission)
    GAC number
    18064