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BOYLE FAMILY
Nothing is more radical than the facts
March 6 – April 24, 2021
Luhring Augustine Chelsea
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Boyle Family, directed by Georgia Boyle and Fran Robertson; A Surface films production for the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund and BBC Scotland
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Boyle Family is a British collaborative group comprised of Mark Boyle (b. 1934, d. 2005), his wife Joan Hills (b. 1931), and their children, Sebastian Boyle (b. 1962) and Georgia Boyle (b. 1963). The artists are well known for developing a body of work called 'earthprobes' in which randomly selected areas of the earth's surface are recreated through meticulous and innovative methods.
Presenting archival photographs alongside significant work, this online viewing room reveals how the earthprobes are but one facet of Boyle Family’s multi-sensory practice, which includes installation, sculpture, photography, film, and performance.
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EARTHPROBES
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In London
Boyle Family began making earthprobes in West London in the early 1960s. The city’s sidewalks, cobbled streets, and industrial detritus feature in a number of bodies of work produced over the years, including the Shepherd’s Bush Series, London Series, Lorrypark Series, and Westminster Series, among others.
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Camber Sands
Camber Sands, a beach in southern England, is a site where Boyle Family have produced works since 1966 and have returned to over the subsequent decades. While most of the sites for the earthprobes were chosen at random, Camber Sands was selected specifically to observe and present its unique topography. One pivotal early series made in 1969, consists of 14 earthprobes that are an examination of the ever-changing physical relationship between sand and water.
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Joan Hills works on an earthprobe at Camber Sands, 1969.
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All 14 earthprobes that comprise the Tidal Series are in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Installation View: Boyle Family, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 14 – November 9, 2003.
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EVENTS AND LIGHT WORKS
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Dig
On February 6, 1966, Boyle Family invited friends to Dig, an event in which participants were brought to a cordoned-off area and instructed to excavate items found in the ground. The location was the site of a demolished ornamental garden statue factory; around 200 of the statues and other objects that were found were exhibited at the Boyle's home.
Dig was hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Archaeology (ICA). Established specifically for the event, this entity would come to codify the motivations for Boyle Family’s larger practice. For Mark, the ICA represented "the view that anything that exists is part of the contemporary environment... an object is not unworthy of our interest because it happens to be old or damaged or picturesque."
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Son et Lumiere
Mark and Joan experimented with works using light and projection throughout most of the 1960s. Son et Lumiere was an important series of performance-based light works that involved projecting microscopic imagery of chemical reactions, live animals and insects, and even bodily fluids. Many of these performances were hosted at underground concert and art show venues in London. Their proximity to other artists and creatives of the counter-culture scene led to important collaborations like that with the psychedelic rock band Soft Machine.
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Zinc being destroyed by acid in Son et Lumière for Earth, Air, Fire and Water, 1966.
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Son et Lumière for Bodily Fluids and Functions, January 1967. Projections included bodily fluids extracted from Boyle and Hills during the performance.
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Projection from Son et Lumière for Earth, Air, Fire and Water, 1966.
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Seeds for a Random Garden
Conceived by Joan Hills in 1966, Seeds for a Random Garden was a project that relates peripherally to the earthprobes. The work involved collecting seeds from areas of land selected randomly by throwing darts at a map. They were also gathered in other ways, such as requesting seeds from guests who attended their exhibition openings, or setting out mesh traps to catch seeds blown in the wind. These samples were then planted in portable boxes and exhibited.
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In 1969, Boyle Family began World Series during their exhibition Journey to the Surface of the Earth at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London. The artists asked blindfolded visitors to throw darts at a large-scale map of the world. The pinpointed areas on the map represented sites where Boyle Family would travel over the subsequent years to realize this monumental project.
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Skin Chart for Body Work, 1969
Microscope Photographs
At every location of World Series, the Boyles collected specimens from the surrounding plant and animal life, including skin and hair samples from their own bodies. These elements were photographed under an electron microscope in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of that unique section of the earth. Experiments of this nature were preceded by a project called Body Works in 1969 in which randomly selected samples of Mark Boyle's skin were examined in the same way.
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Venice Biennale
In 1978, Boyle Family represented the United Kingdom at the 38th Venice Biennale with a selection of works from a number of series. Featured prominently were earthprobes and electron microscope photographs from a World Series site in Sardinia, made that same year specifically for inclusion in the British pavilion.
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NOTHING IS MORE RADICAL THAN THE FACTS
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For the larger part of the last century, Boyle Family have continued making work internationally and locally in London. In addition to the ICA London exhibition (1969), and the Venice Biennale (1978), solo exhibitions of their work have been held at the Hayward Gallery, London (1986), the Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand (1990), as well as a major retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (2003). In presenting reality holistically, Boyle Family developed a multi-generational and multifarious approach as a means of transcending the practical and formal limitations of artmaking. The inclusive and international nature of their practice offers an all-embracing way of looking at things, a prescient antecedent to the now common globalization of visual culture.
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