Boyle Family

‘Art should not exclude anything as a potential subject’
- The Boyle Family

The Boyle Family are a family of collaborative artists based in London- Mark Boyle & Joan Hills who met in Harrogate and their children Sebastian & Georgia Over the years they have worked with many artists, performers, musicians, filmmakers & dancers including Jimi Hendrix & the psychedelic jazz-rock pioneers Soft Machine. The family experimented with such a variety of media and more importantly had fun in doing so. This included performances and events, films and projections, sound recordings, photography, electron-microphotography, drawing, assemblage, painting, sculpture and installation.

Whilst researching them over the years I have come to love their outlook on art and design, ‘art that does not exclude anything as a potential subject’. Growing up with an interest in art I discovered a weird fascination…road markings. I don’t know what sparked this but especially in recent years I have just found them so raw and interesting. They vary so much and now with a knowledge of programmes such as Photoshop- you can manipulate images of them to create really interesting outcomes. Anyway! My art teacher recommended I research into other artists with an interest in this area and that’s when I discovered the Boyle family. Over the years they have concentrated on so many subjects, some of them being: earth, air, fire and water; animals, vegetables and minerals; insects, reptiles and water creatures; human beings and societies.

Their best known work, however, continues to be their Journey to the Surface of the Earth which they begun in 1964 and is an ongoing set of strange and interesting work. This work includes different projects from around the world including; the London Series, Tidal Series, Thaw Series, Japan Series and their lifelong project, the World Series.

'London Series' and 'Cobbles Study'

'Concrete Pavement study' and 'New York Study'

'Street Study outside School' and 'Tidal Series'

What is even more interesting is how they choose what to include in each of the series. Each section of work consists of a square of ground which is cast on the spot of a particular location. The way they decide upon a spot is great. They would display a map of the world on a wall and visitors would then be blindfolded and be asked to throw a dart at the map. Wherever the dart landed is where they would undertake their next piece of artwork. I think it’s such a refreshing approach. Sometimes, we are given a project to do and have no idea of where to start- this idea certainly solves that problem.’They attempt to present a slice of reality as they found it at the moment of selection’.Of the course the world is always changing so their work will never be a permanent and accurate representation of the world in which we live…but it was true at the time.

I personally find their work refreshing and interesting as I have a strange love for ‘natural’ art, but the way in which they work and their philosophy on art and design is so different and unusual it just makes them all the more interesting!


http://www.boylefamily.co.uk/