Devotional

Celebrating Black female singers in British entertainment, this unique display is the latest development in the ‘Devotional Series’, a body of work by the artist Sonia Boyce

The display takes the form of an elaborately hand-drawn installation on the gallery walls: a roll call of one hundred and eighty names. The names will be illustrated by portraits of several of the singers, among them Shirley Bassey, Joan Armatrading, Des’ree and Ms.Dynamite.

The Devotional Series began with a group of women from Liverpool, brought together with Sonia Boyce through the Motherlode project, in association with the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT). Asked to sing and recall the first record they ever bought, the women in the group began to build a collective map of black women in the British music industry.

Today the list contains 180 names. Each name celebrates an icon; each icon triggers a song; and each song a moment that is as significant to a personal memory as it is to a generation’s collective memory.

For the first time, with this installation at the National Portrait Gallery, London, Devotional will include nineteen photographic portraits of singers included in the series. Representing the work of prominent photographers working in the music industry, these portraits will include works by Bob Collins, Pennie Smith, Kofi Allen, Albert Watson and Andy Earl.

Devotional is at National Portrait Gallery Room 37a. Free, London until 25 November 2007
www.npg.org.uk

Pic Top: Mica Paris by Derrick Santini.

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