In Conversation with Shary Boyle
Shary Boyle. Photo Ted Belton © 2021
In an exhibition steeped in theatre and music, multidisciplinary Canadian artist Shary Boyle invites us to enter the stage to examine the influences that help shape us. Alexandrine Théorêt, the curator in charge of the exhibition at the MMFA, sat down with the artist to learn more about her sources of inspiration and creative process.
Alexandrine Théorêt
On view from September 1, 2022, to January 15, 2023, Outside the Palace of Me explores the performative aspects of identity in a time when social media has become a stage for self-presentation. The works brought together in this exhibition offer a critical interrogation of colonialism, misogyny, racism and other societal pressures, while underscoring beauty, longing, a commitment to hope and the human capacity for empathy.
In developing this exhibition, the artist worked closely with a set designer, robotics engineer, amusement park designer and wardrobe master to invent a playful scenography dedicated to humanity and imagination. Shining the spotlight on her uncanny characters and their perplexed audience, she urges viewers to think critically about how we create both ourselves and the world we inhabit.
Tell us about the genesis of the exhibition Outside the Palace of Me. What are some of the ideas and thoughts that sparked it, and what is the significance of the title?
Outside the Palace of Me is a lyric fragment from the song “Europe is Lost” by British poet and musician Kae Tempest:
“… Saccharine ballads and selfies and selfies and selfies
And here’s me outside the palace of me
Construct a self and psychosis
Meanwhile the people were dead in their droves
And no, nobody noticed, well, some of them noticed
You could tell by the emoji they posted…”
The song is about the mounting global destruction brought on by colonialism and capitalism. It describes the many strategies Western cultures employ to avoid taking responsibility, and how we numb ourselves to frightening truths. It’s a harsh, but constructive critique of popular European culture in this moment. The messages that Tempest repeats throughout the album are to “wake up” and to “love more.”
In my own practice, music plays an inspirational, educational and soul-building role. I created this exhibition to explore the terrain between who we are inside and who we present and are perceived as in public. I want to understand why identity is learned and constructed, and how it operates in relation to the world we inhabit.
In what specific ways are our identities constructed and projected today? How do you approach this subject in the exhibition?
Social media has seduced us into performing our personal experiences and editing our identities for a disembodied audience. World events of monumental impact to our collective future are condensed into sensational news cycles that spin so fast we have no time to process one before the next replaces it. The lines between personal integrity and political artifice are dangerously blurred. Meanwhile, thought leaders carefully perform their stagecraft. Humans are creatures of story and are remarkably susceptible to it. As I was developing this exhibition, I used the physical process of sculpting and drawing to narrate my feelings and thoughts in response to world issues like climate change, as well as more local questions of cultural, gender, political and racial identity. In the centre of these complex societal questions stands the figure of the artist crafting and reflecting images, in order to create – or know – themselves.
You mention racial identity and, indeed, an entire section of the exhibition is devoted to the theme of whiteness. What was the impetus behind your wish to explore the notions of privilege and racism, and what do you want to convey through these works?
Racial identity is one key factor in how we navigate the world, our relationships and the society we live in. Museums and galleries in Canada, indeed, most of our institutions, are European-forged. This centres whiteness and white perspectives in the nation’s cultural dialogues. Yet I’ve noticed that when it comes to confronting racism, it’s predominantly Indigenous, Black, Muslim, and Asian people who are doing the heavy lifting. Few white cultural leaders in Canada are talking about what whiteness is, how it operates, or how it has been used to oppress or discriminate against non-white people. Canada is based on land theft, supported by the Doctrine of Discovery and historical British and French interests in natural resources. We are now living in a time when these painful truths are being reckoned with, and artists are grappling with them in their creative work. I am not aware of many white Canadian visual artists who are exploring whiteness, which is a conversation that remains fraught and controversial in our own communities. I created White Elephant specifically to encourage conversations about whiteness between white people.1 The two drawings that accompany the sculpture, Lone Gunman (White Man) and The Settler, question how gender constructs intersect with white violence, power and colonialism.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), White Elephant, 2021, aluminum, foam, textiles, porcelain, motor, 243.8 x 127 x 144.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA). Photo Toni Hafkenscheid
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), Lone Gunman (White Man), 2019, ink, gouache and acrylic on paper, 132 x 102 cm. Collection of Elisabeth Preston and Peter Strickland. Photo Imagefoundry
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), Settler, 2019, ink, gouache and acrylic on paper, 132 x 88 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown Gallery. Photo Imagefoundry
This exhibition is also greatly inspired by the performing arts, and there are a number of allusions to music and theatre in details like the stage, the masks and even the playbill the visitor takes with them on their visit. You compare our internal world to the stage. What do you mean by this?
In our current era of fears and anxieties around politics and the environment, and our shifting definitions of culture and identity, we might look to our ancestral relationships with music, plays and cautionary tales to remember, and learn from, our human tendencies. Art does not serve an escapist purpose. On the contrary, masks, costumes and performance play a role in shaping societal ethics and expectations. We create characters to practise real life. The metaphor of the theatre, both in our every day and on a global scale, feels like a timely way to explore our current dramas of self-preservation and self-presentation.
Your work frequently plays with stark contrasts between pretty and sombre. Indeed, in some of your artworks, what appears at first blush to be charming and delightful is actually getting at graver issues. How is this expressed in the present exhibition?
In Outside the Palace of Me, I employ the aesthetics of historical European figurative ceramics, Las Vegas show biz, the circus funhouse, fine art, folk art, Madame Tussauds waxworks and the parking lot carnival. I am proposing an equation composed of high and low artistic experiences, and embracing the spectrum of creative voices in a gesture of rejection of classist exclusion. All of these references may provoke vague or sharp memories, offering the potential for insight and self-reflection.
Beauty is a tool, as well as an invitation. The male bird, in all its iridescent splendour and mesmerizing dance, really has one objective: to mate. I believe deeply in craft and the dignity of the decorative. Seductive surface applications welcome and honour the viewer as a kind of antechamber to the more challenging depths the work has to offer.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), The Painter, 2019, porcelain, underglaze, china paint, lustre, enamel, mirror, 45 x 38 x 28 cm. Courtesy of Claridge Collection. Photo John Jones
Your practice is known for its multidisciplinary nature, and it stands out in several mediums. What do you look for in drawing or painting that you can’t get from the mediums of sculpture or installation and vice versa?
Large complex sculpture, intricate ceramic work, image painting and drawing; each tap into distinct physical and internal states during the act of making. My research and ideas guide my process, and I tend to move between mediums instinctually now, kind of like cooking a meal: I feel out the balance between pleasure and health in my studio practice. I do most of my work alone, with the exception of my large electronic, sculptural or performance works. There’s a natural rhythm between my needs to quietly reflect, and to collaborate and deepen creative relationships. In this way, no medium is limiting.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), Cephalophoric Saint, 2018, colour lithograph with opalescent pigment, edition of 25, collaborating printer: Jill Graham, 66 x 50 cm. Collection of E. Grace and S. Vella. Photo Toni Hafkenscheid
How did you come to integrate these animatronic and robotic works in the exhibition Outside the Palace of Me?
Exploring animatronics felt like the natural next step towards making my figures become ever more alive. Puppetry and early animation hold great interest for me. When I began to research the origins of wax museums, I was delighted to learn early wax figures often contained rudimentary animatronics to effect simple movement, heightening their uncanny effect on the public. My idea for the spinning head on White Elephant came before I conceived of Judy’s mechanical arm. It was the simple – yet extremely complex to create – 360° head spin that inspired further “animations.” All of these movements operate on surprise, prompting us to question our assumptions, biases and judgement. Look again. We know so much less than we think we do.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), Judy, 2021, wax, electronics, ceramics, mixed media, 195.6 x 91.4 x 71.1 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown Gallery. Photo Toni Hafkenscheid
You’ve also done a number of immersive installations. I’m thinking of White Light (2010), currently on display in the Museum’s collection galleries, as well as Music for Silence (2013), which you presented at the 2013 Venice Biennale. What artistic reflections underlie the process of creating your immersive environments? How do they further your thoughts on society and life?
When planning the overall experience of an installation, I reach for a harmony of medium and scale through compositional groupings. I carefully consider the sightlines and the intimate, tactile aspects of paper and porcelain in relation to metal and textiles, light and action. I create small, invitational surprises in my work itself. When artwork and staging combines in design, it piques the curiosity of the viewer and compels them to move through the space to seek and discover, to participate. My work as an artist is primarily a pursuit of self-knowledge. It’s an exploration of my specific experience of life on Earth. At the same time, I have a strong need to communicate and relate. The potential for social connection is what makes me want to create immersive environments. By imagining a series of intimate, charged moments within a space, I invite the unknown other, with their unique perspective, to join me in the contemplation of our shared, and differing, experiences.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), White Light, 2010, nylon, cotton, porcelain, hair, black light, variable dimensions. MMFA, gift of the artist. Photo MMFA, Denis Farley. This work is not part of the exhibition Outside the Palace of Me but is currently on display in the Museum’s contemporary art galleries (Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion, Level S2) just steps from the Contemporary Art Square.
My work as an artist is primarily a pursuit of self-knowledge. It’s an exploration of my specific experience of life on Earth. At the same time, I have a strong need to communicate and relate. The potential for social connection is what makes me want to create immersive environments. By imagining a series of intimate, charged moments within a space, I invite the unknown other, with their unique perspective, to join me in the contemplation of our shared, and differing, experiences.
In this exhibition, you’ve included a participatory dimension with Orchestra – the music station where visitors can choose a piece from your playlist as background music – as well as in some of the works, such as the impressive Centering (2021). How does this interactive element enhance or affect the experience of the viewer?
What happens when we take the invisible layers of class intimidation and academic dominance out of the experience of viewing contemporary art? Artists are people, and our art is a reflection of the people. Museums might serve our human needs for ritual, healing, resistance, reflection and delight. Outside the Palace of Me was envisioned to transform spectators into performers, to turn the passive visitor dynamic on its head. There’s only one way to enter the exhibition: by walking through the dressing room, under the proscenium arch and onto the stage towards the footlights, the visitor becomes the performer. This is a metaphor for our societal responsibilities, designed to empower us within an institution. I purposely chose not to include wall labels beside the artworks to empower a freedom of interpretation. The playbill contains more information on the work, so that participants can glean a deeper reading at their own pace. Viewers are entrusted to caretake the artwork as they interact with it. They can talk, exclaim if they’re surprised, and choose their own soundtrack. Regular and two-way mirrors welcome them to reflect on themselves and wonder freely about others in a spirit of curiosity and respect.
Shary Boyle (born in 1972), Centering, 2019, coin-operated pottery wheel, electronics, wood, textiles, foot pedal, 177.8 x 66 x 55.9 cm, textile collaboration with Grant Heaps. Courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown Gallery. Photo Toni Hafkenscheid
1 In July 2021, the General Manager of CAFKA.21, Glodeane Brown, invited Shary Boyle to share her reflections on and talk about the making of White Elephant, commissioned for the biennale. Learn more about this impressive work here.
Shary Boyle: Outside the Palace of Me
September 1, 2022 – January 15, 2023
Credits and curatorial team
An exhibition organized by the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It is curated by Sequoia Miller, PhD, Chief Curator of the Gardiner Museum. The curator in charge of the exhibition at the MMFA is Alexandrine Théorêt, Assistant Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art.
The MMFA wishes to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of its official sponsor, Denalt Paints. Furthermore, it thanks the institution’s Women of Influence Circle, whose mission is to promote female artists by presenting exhibitions on and acquiring artworks by women. The MMFA would also like to thank its media partner La Presse. The exhibition was funded in part by the Government of Quebec, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
