Sonia Boyce, In The Castle Of My Skin

About

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.

A large sculpture by Sonia Boyce based on the shape of Fool’s Gold threads through this exhibition. It is clad in wallpapers made by Boyce since the early 1990s. Artworks by 12 contemporary artists and selected pieces from MIMA’s Middlesbrough Collection interact with the ideas in Boyce’s work.

The exhibition has been put together with Boyce through a process of improvisation, with one decision informing the next, to create a chain of connections. She encourages the viewer to find links across artworks from different eras made in a range of materials.

The theme of skin – as a covering, surface, barrier and marker of identity – weaves through the exhibition. Some of the works ask questions about what we remember, individually and as a society. Many of the artists use movement, improvisation, repetition and play to consider how the body connects with its environment and other living beings.

Organised by MIMA with Eastside Projects, with support from Henry Moore Foundation and The Elephant Trust