Sonia Boyce in BLACK VENUS, Somerset House, London
‘Black Venus: Reclaiming Black Women in Visual Culture’ brings together the work of 18 Black women and non-binary artists to explore the othering, fetishisation and reclamation of narratives around Black femininity.
For the exhibition, Sonia Boyce will present Just One Minute More, (2016 – 2022). The less than one minute film installation, influenced by the short form GIF, pays homage to the American singer and actress Elisabeth Welch. The footage appropriated from Derek Jarman’s film adaptation of ‘The Tempest’ (1979) is re-animated to capture the figure of Welch, mid-song in an endless loop, sparkling on screen.
‘Black Venus’ celebrates and explores the many faces of Black femininity, with over 40 contemporary and primarily photographic artworks. The exhibition’s contemporary works offer a radical affront to a centuries-long dynamic of objectification, showcasing all that Black womanhood can be and has always been.
The exhibition mines the complex narratives of Black womanhood through the lens of three archival depictions of Black women: the Hottentot Venus, the Sable Venus, and the Jezebel, dating between 1793 to 1930. These works serve to contextualise historical depictions of Black women and the caricaturing of the Black body.
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Black Venus: Reclaiming Black Women in Visual Culture
Somerset House, Strand,
London, WC2R 1LA
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Just One Minute More, 2022. Installation View: ‘Black Venus: Reclaiming Black Women in Visual Culture’, Somerset House, London. Photo: © Tim Bowditch.