MARTIN BOYCE

Throughout the space, intersecting walls create a disorientating environment in which the viewer to encounters a repetition of telephones, chairs and doors. Each with their ownpresence and character, three chairs are individually positioned against doors, theiradjustable backrests wedged against its handle, forcing them shut. Since its first iteration in1999 as Chair (Noir), Boyce’s reference of this cinematic device has evolved to includeindustrial references as well as that of the Arts and Crafts movement. Each chair’s actionsuggests a personality of guardianship, becoming an aid to protect the room from whatevermalevolent force that lies beyond. Moreover, this strange domestic still life provides anuncanny reflection towards the context of contested territories, borders and isolationistpolitics.

Another threshold is indicated by the recognisable form of the wall mounted telephone. Set against large painted panels, their shapes and patterns allude to Boyce’s ongoing visuallanguage. The retrofuturist appearance of these landline telephones alluding to their ownbattle against obsolescence. In these works, Boyce examines the phone’s territorialrelationship as a portal between two fixed points in space and time, which leads one to askwhether objects are alive and carry residue; or whether instead they are simply hollowconduits imposed upon through interaction. Boyce also observes the conditions andcircumstances in which information and memory operates (and consequently howinformation is harvested and retained) in conjunction with today’s digital technology

In the sense of silence and stillness, the tension of expectation and potential is rich: the phone threatens to ring as the door pushes against the chair.

Martin Boyce (b. 1967; Hamilton, UK) lives and works in Glasgow. Boyce has exhibited internationally and was awarded the 2011 Turner Prize for his installation Do Words Have Voices, and represented Scotland at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale in 2009. Recent selected exhibitions include: On the Other Hand’ Canary Wharf Estate, London (2021); MONO, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow (2021); Recurring Dreams’,Haubrok Foundation, Berlin (2021); No Longer Fathom, Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2020); Just Beyond the Undertow, CONVENT Space for Contemporary Art, Ghent (2019); AnInn For Phantoms Of The Outside And In, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute (2019); HangingGardens, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu (2018); Light Years, The Modern Institute, Glasgow(2017); Spotlight - Do Words Have Voices, Tate Britain, London (2016); Museum fürGegenwartskunst Basel, Basel (2015); and When Now is Night, Rhode Island School ofDesign, Providence (2015).