The Devotional Wallpaper

The Devotional Wallpaper (2008 onwards) is the third artist wallpaper Boyce has made. The artwork consists of a roll-call of 200 names of black British women in the music industry that is made into a simple geometric grid pattern, with one entire repeat measuring 5 metres across by 2 metres high.

The Devotional Wallpaper is one of a series of works in ‘The Devotional Series’ which began in 1999 as a six-month project, as part of the FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) Collaborations Programme that partners artists with specific community groups in Liverpool to co-produce an artwork. Boyce was partnered with Liverpool Black Sisters. During the sessions, the group was tasked with building a map of black British female singers. Since then, word of mouth has spread as members of the general public have added their favourites towards a list that now contains over two hundred names. The concept of The Devotional Wallpaper came about as a result of a drawn installation of a roll-call of one hundred and eighty names of black women musicians Boyce made at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007. Boyce wanted to develop the National Gallery installation ‘total experience’ as a portable work, which would afford new kinds of experience and spectatorship.

To arrive at a wallpaper design, Boyce enlisted the help of artist and bespoke wallpaper designer Linda Florence to provide her with some workshops on developing a repeat surface pattern. Out of these workshops Boyce was able to solve the problem of how to use text as both information (a sign) as well as the basis for a series of drawings (to play with its semiotic) as Boyce drew concentric lines around each letter of the performers’ names.