Opening: 11 June 2021
MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, reopens this summer with an exhibition by one of Britain’s foremost artists, Sonia Boyce. As we re-emerge from the national lockdown, MIMA’s exhibition offers sensory experiences of visual art, sound and architecture.
Visitors are welcomed to an arena of improvisation and play through a multi-faceted structure that unfolds across MIMA’s gallery spaces displaying artworks by 12 contemporary artists selected with Sonia Boyce from the Middlesbrough Collection. In the Castle of My Skin features a large angular sculpture by Boyce based on the shape of pyrite, a shimmering mineral commonly known as Fool’s Gold.
The structure is clad in wallpapers made by Boyce since the early 1990s. In the Castle of My Skin uses the metaphor of skin as a covering, a surface, a barrier, a marker of identity and a connector between internal and external worlds. A newly-commissioned video by Boyce features fearless skateboarders from Tees Valley-based collective Girls Skate North East (GSNE) and ukulele-playing skateboarders in Birmingham. The work connects with the artist’s long-held interests in improvisation as a way of generating new ideas. The skateboarders play in urban environments, using their bodies to understand space and architectural surfaces.
Pieces by 12 artists based in the Tees Valley and around the UK join works from the Middlesbrough Collection. They spill from Boyce’s extraordinary structure, encouraging freewheeling connections across artworks from different eras and made in a range of materials. A dynamic five-meter wall painting by Emma Bennett responding to local modernist architecture is paired with prints by world-famous Op Art artist Bridget Riley. Photographs by Kev Howard show the intricate designs of prosthetic limbs, while Harold Offeh’s ‘Selfie Choreography’ video invites visitors to explore the exhibition using selfie-sticks and cameras to think about technology as an extension of the body and how we perform our identities.
Sonia Boyce, artist, states: ‘It is such a rare treat to be invited to immerse myself in the works of other artists and to thoughtfully play alongside the staff at MIMA – who have been a delight – by putting this exhibition together. The connections and divergences between works may, at first, seem tangential, but the more I get to know each work, the more I luxuriate in the creative processes of kindred spirits and hope that this resonates with audiences to the exhibition and its extended programme.’
Laura Sillars, MIMA Director and Dean of MIMA School of Art & Design notes: ‘To show works from the museum’s collection alongside contemporary pieces and new commissions in collaboration with one of Britain’s most important living artists is a joyful experience. The exhibition’s themes of improvisation in urban space and the construction of identity have never been more relevant than at this time of change.’
Boyce has had a long association with Middlesbrough and MIMA holds one of Boyce’s key early works, She Ain’t Holding Them Up, She’s Holding On (Some English Rose), 1986 (acquired in 1987). Throughout 2019 the artist has collaborated with the institution and colleagues from the Black Artists & Modernism research project to audit the collection for contributions by black artists.
In 2020 MIMA was awarded Boyce’s landmark artwork Devotional Wallpaper and Placards, 2008-2020 through the Contemporary Art Society Rapid Response Fund, in partnership with Frieze London, an initiative to support artists and museums during the Covid-19 pandemic. The installation will be presented as part of this exhibition to mark its entry into the Middlesbrough Collection.
Elinor Morgan, Head of Programme at MIMA, adds: ‘The installation Devotional Wallpaper and Placards offers rich stimulus for discussing relationships, visibility, memories and creativity. It creates a space of recognition and a site for sharing memories and overlooked narratives. The work connects with MIMA’s commitment to publicly addressing cultural amnesia and to revising histories.’
The title, In the Castle of My Skin, comes from an autobiographical novel by George Lamming, a study of colonial revolt that is seen as one of the great political novels in modern ‘colonial’ literature. Set in the 1930s in Barbados, where the author was born, the story follows a young boy’s life against the backdrop of major societal change. Boyce’s reference to this narrative builds on her extensive work in re-evaluating modernism to incorporate a range of perspectives, journeys and voices.
The exhibition is organised in partnership with Eastside Projects with new works co-commissioned by Eastside Projects and MIMA, with support from The Henry Moore Foundation and Elephant Trust.
For press information please contact Albany Arts Communications:
Carla von der Becke
carla@albanyartscommunications.com
t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95; m: + 44 (0) 79 74 25 29 94
Sally Pearson
s.pearson@tees.ac.uk
m: +44 (0) 79 14 32 42 58
Notes to Editors
About Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art – MIMA
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art – MIMA – connects art, people and ideas. MIMA is an international art gallery and museum. We commission, collect and re-think modern and contemporary art. We make creative, civic space. MIMA works closely with local and global partners to put art into action. We build public participation. A cultural and community hub, ethics of equity, diversity and inclusion drive our work. Part of Teesside University, MIMA is powered by a vision to positively contribute to society.
About the Artists
Sonia Boyce (OBE, RA) will represent the UK at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2022. Among numerous solo and group exhibitions, both internationally and in the UK, her recent solo shows have included Manchester Art Gallery (2018), ICA, London (2017), Villa Arson, Nice (2016), and group exhibitions including Prospect 4, New Orleans (2017), and Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures, for the 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2015). She is currently completing a significant public art commission for the Elizabeth Line, Crossrail project, London. Boyce is a Professor at University of the Arts London, where she holds the inaugural Chair in Black Art & Design.
Saelia Aparicio was born in 1982 in Spain, and lives and works in London. Aparicio studied at Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, Cuenca, Spain and the Royal College of Art, London. Saelia works in sculpture, animation, large scale free-hand drawings and glass blowing.
Simeon Barclay was born in 1975 in Huddersfield. Barclay studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, Chelsea College of Art and Design, and Goldsmiths College. Barclay combines found and appropriated images with text, film, installation and sculpture, drawing on fashion, music, and popular culture to explore matters of identity and self.
Anna Barham was born 1974 in Sutton Coldfield, and lives and works in London. She studied Maths and Philosophy at Cambridge University before studying sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art. Her work incorporates drawing, sculpture, writing, film, and performance.
Emma Bennett was born in the Tees Valley in 1972. She studied BA in Fine Art at Teesside University and graduated with an MA in Fine Art from MIMA School of Art and Design. Emma is a painter whose work.
Kev Howard was born in the Tees Valley in 1965 and is based in Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Howard graduated from the MIMA School of Art and Design with an MA in Fine Art. Howard is a photographer and musician who makes figurative photographs, urban and rural landscapes, documentary and performance photography.
Lindiwe Matshikiza was born in 1983 and lives and works in South Africa. Matshikiza works mainly with performance, directing and writing. She uses her background and training in theatre-making as a base from which to approach other kinds of work; often collaborative, exploratory projects that take on more than one form over time.
Harold Offeh was born in Accra, Ghana in 1977 and grew up in London. Offeh works across performance, video and photography combined with learning and social arts practices. He is a Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths College and The Slade School of Art, UCL, London.
Flora Parrott was born in 1981 in London. Parrott has a background in printmaking and a fascination with material investigation. She is currently undertaking a TECHNE funded PhD between the Geography Department at Royal Holloway University London and the Printmaking Department at The Royal College of Art.
Penny Payne lives in Whitley Bay and works in a studio in Cullercoats. Payne’s practice is based on interactions with the physical and the psychological and her work includes sculpture, painting, print, and multi-layered abstraction. Payne has presented work as part of the Middlesbrough Art Weekender.
Alberta Whittle was born in 1980 in Bridgetown, Barbados, and lives and works in Glasgow. Whittle is an artist, researcher and curator whose work involves performance, writing, digital collage and video installation. Whittle studied at Glasgow School of Art, and is currently a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art.
Kenizzi Yamalimbu was born in 1994 in Bukavu, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is based in Birmingham and studied at Birmingham Metropolitan College, later joining the Extra Ordinary People’s programme with Eastside Projects Birmingham.
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