Sonia Boyce is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who lives and works in London. Over her 30-year career, Boyce has emerged as one of the leading figures in the British art scene. The artist’s Newham Trackside Wall piece is the longest public work in Europe covering almost 2km. It is due to be launched in July in London’s East End.
The artist has worked with local communities to produce a mural for the wall running through Custom House, Silvertown and North Woolwich as part of the Crossrail transport project, flanking the new Elizabeth train line.
She has a close relationship to the area. She grew up in Canning Town, studied in Plaistow, and taught at University of East London. Her unique artwork which will reflect the many stories from and around the local area. She has held workshops training local young people from Shipman Youth Centre, Fight for Peace and ASTA Community Hub to record and archive oral history interviews. These young people have undertaken interviews with the local community and the results have become material for Boyce’s artwork.
She adds that the commission “has had community engagement embedded in it from the beginning. The celebration in early July is also about inviting the amazing people from the community who have been involved in the project, marking the completion of a piece that’s been almost five years in the making. Sonia wanted to encapsulate what the area is like at this particular point in time, in the middle of a significant transformational change during this regeneration process.
A floral pattern runs along the entire mural, like connective wallpaper, drawing on the natural ecology of the area. A project statement says: “The work embodies and mirrors the different neighborhoods and ecology opposite the trackside wall, depicting buildings, homes, street scenes, flora and fauna, animals and insects of the area.”