Yes, I Hear You

Yes, I Hear You is underpinned by processes of sharing testimony and engaging in deep listening. The project asks how different people and systems witness complexity in interpersonal relationships. Presented as a four-channel video installation accompanied by eight prints and a wallpaper, Yes I Hear You is the culmination of two years of research involving interviews, workshops, reviews, and performative sessions with people who identify as survivors of domestic abuse; those who have perpetuated harm; and care workers, harm reduction facilitators, and therapists who support people directly affected by domestic abuse.

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Only by listening to the stories of those who have experienced domestic abuse can we achieve change in how those affected are heard and supported. Sonia Boyce’s Yes, I Hear You is underpinned by processes of sharing testimony and engaging in deep listening, asking how different people and systems witness complexity in interpersonal relationships. Presented as a four-channel video installation accompanied by eight digital prints and wallpaper, Yes, I Hear You is the culmination of two years of research involving interviews, workshops, reviews, and performative sessions with people who identify as survivors of domestic abuse; those who have perpetrated harm; and care workers, harm reduction facilitators, and therapists who support people directly affected by domestic abuse.

An essential part of Sonia Boyce’s artistic process is gathering a variety of people to help conjure something tangible out of the immateriality of a conversation. The framework of the project was informed, as it evolved, by careful reflection on complex issues involving relationship dynamics, trauma, accountability, and the systems that perpetuate harm.

For Yes, I Hear You, Boyce invited groups of people, from social workers to academics, to listen to anonymised transcripts of people who had shared their experiences of coercive behaviour and abuse with the artist. Boyce later invited the four film performers to interpret these transcripts as well, connecting with their own responses. Throughout the project, Boyce and her collaborators asked who we listen as and who are we listening to, and what happens to stories of harm through acts of collective voicing, recording, and embodiment.

As the performers stand on stage in the film, Yes, I Hear You, the juxtaposition of their smiling veneer with the spoken stories that we hear underscores the discrepancies between public and private in cases of abuse. The work emphasises the impact of speaking out and asks viewers to listen deeply and become witnesses.

• https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/what...
• https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/what...