Sonia Boyce

For her inaugural solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, Boyce will present two new films alongside her latest wallpaper and photographic works.

In the first film on view, Boyce weaves together footage captured at a silent disco, a paradoxically hushed event in which a roomful of dancers responds to music heard only through headphones. Inspired by both Roy DeCarava’s ‘Dancers, New York’ (1956) and Adrian Piper’s ‘Funk Lessons’ (1983) —groundbreaking works by artists who have centered Black culture—Boyce’s ‘Silent Disco’ (2025) revels in the dancers’ unguarded gestures, flickering emotions and ephemeral exchanges. Using montage and repetition, among other techniques, the film takes these lively impressions ‘for a walk,’ as Boyce would say, quoting Paul Klee’s adage (‘Drawing is like taking a line for a walk’).

As the film begins, only ambient noises are audible to the viewer: we hear the soft shuffle of feet, train cars passing outside the venue, murmurs that erupt into sudden bursts of song. Gradually, the music builds, coaxing the dancers into collective movement, though their headsets are tuned to two separate channels. Harmony

arises, improbably, from dissonance. A key subject in Boyce’s recent work, the silent disco is not a party, but rather a framework for close listening, improvisation and collective performance.

In ‘Carmen’ (2025), Boyce delves into the life and career of trailblazing Guyanese British actress Carmen Munroe, who reshaped perceptions of Caribbean migrants in the UK through her performances in such West End plays as Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’ and her roles on popular British television programs including ‘Doctor

Who: The Enemy of the World’ (1967 – 1968), ‘The Persuaders’ (1971 – 1972) and ‘Desmond’s’ (1989 – 1994). Part portrait, part historical document, Boyce’s film traces Munroe’s impact as an artist and activist.

‘Carmen’ (2025) was made with support from Wandsworth Council as part of the Mayor of London’s London Borough of Culture initiative.

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