"A Sonia Boyce–Lygia Clark Double Feature at Whitechapel Offers an Exhilarating Proposition" by Elizabeth Fullerton

For its fall programming, London’s Whitechapel Gallery decided to present an intriguing pairing of exhibitions of two artists who at first may seem an unlikely duo: Sonia Boyce and Lygia Clark. But their work, this double bill of shows argues, shares compelling synergies such as an emphasison touch and play. Moreover, both artists shifted from making object-based art to focusing on participatory practice during their careers. The relational grounding of both their practices is even conveyed in the exhibition titles “An Awkward Relation,” for Boyce, and “The I and the You,” for Clark, who is receiving her first museum survey in the UK.

“Something that permeates both Sonia’s and Lygia’s work is this idea of how you connect and dissolve the line between the art object and the audience, how you invite audiences to play, and to break what have become the established rules of the museum and gallery,” said Whitechapel director Gilane Tawadros, who cocurated the exhibitions with Boyce and Anglo-Brazilian scholar Michael Asbury. “Play is a very serious business because in playing we are often exploring the boundaries between each other.”

Signs throughout the two exhibitions encourage visitors to “touch and explore these sculptures,” making a refreshing change from the reverential behavior demanded by most art institutions that is often divorced from the artists’ intentions. Visitors can handle, for example, replicas of Clark’s origami-like metal-hinged Bichos (Critters) from the 1960s (several originals are on view in nearby vitrines for their protection), or try out an array of her tactile objects using everyday materials designed to stimulate an awareness of the body. These include goggles with reversible lenses, materials with instructions for making a paper Mobius strip, and an air-filled bag with a pebble on top that evokes a lung when compressed and expanded. Equally, Boyce’s 1993 installation Hair Objects invites visitors to break social taboos and touch dreadlocks and plaits made from both synthetic and real hair.

Read full article at artnews.com