Framing the Frame: Shakespeare and the Cadre

This article provides a conceptual introduction to the notion of Framing and functions as an introduction. n Framing the Sign, Jonathan Culler privileges the term frame over context (ix). Culler states that framing a work of literature implies literary analysis whereby the agency of the critic determines the meaning of that work, whereas context is something that is already given. While frame invites the interpretations of complexities separate from the surrounding space in which the work of literature exists, context directs us “to slip back into the model it proposes’; it thus simplifies analysis because it presumes that some of the meaning in the work of art is already known.publishedVersio

Art in Action: Learning from Sonia Boyce's 'Feeling her Way', Venice, 2022

This research asks what we can learn from the success of Sonia Boyce at the 2022Venice Biennale. It opens with a personal account of viewing the work. It moves on toconsider the press response to Boyce’s work and the strategies required by the artistto resist identity-based interpretation. Boyce’s diplomatic work in handling the pressreveals the structural inequities faced currently by artists operating at all levels whohave a global majority background or any other identity that has been historicallymarginalised within Western culture. To understand the interpretative challengesfaced by Boyce, it is necessary to return to the art and its histories, the 1980s and theBritish Black Arts Movement and the art of the following decade. The lack of attentionpaid to the history of the British Black Arts Movement period poses a genuine risk toany artist whose work emerged at this time, and has historically contributed to limitingartists’ access to elite platforms such as the Venice Biennale. Great Britain’s pavilionprogramme over the last thirty years and its relationship with market forces exposescritical structural issues that, for the creation of future equity, must be addressed.Finally, the role of collaboration and partnership across wider contemporary art andcultural sectors is proposed here as offering potential for progress towards moreequitable creative futures

Art in Action: Learning from Sonia Boyce's 'Feeling her Way', Venice, 2022

This research asks what we can learn from the success of Sonia Boyce at the 2022Venice Biennale. It opens with a personal account of viewing the work. It moves on toconsider the press response to Boyce’s work and the strategies required by the artistto resist identity-based interpretation. Boyce’s diplomatic work in handling the pressreveals the structural inequities faced currently by artists operating at all levels whohave a global majority background or any other identity that has been historicallymarginalised within Western culture. To understand the interpretative challengesfaced by Boyce, it is necessary to return to the art and its histories, the 1980s and theBritish Black Arts Movement and the art of the following decade. The lack of attentionpaid to the history of the British Black Arts Movement period poses a genuine risk toany artist whose work emerged at this time, and has historically contributed to limitingartists’ access to elite platforms such as the Venice Biennale. Great Britain’s pavilionprogramme over the last thirty years and its relationship with market forces exposescritical structural issues that, for the creation of future equity, must be addressed.Finally, the role of collaboration and partnership across wider contemporary art andcultural sectors is proposed here as offering potential for progress towards moreequitable creative futures