Like Love – Part Two was part of a trilogy of exhibitions by Sonia Boyce – Part One at Spike Island, Bristol and Part Three at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent. It examined the concept of care and community cohesion, with a specific focus on the emotion we invest in others and in the making of art works. Regarding the title, Boyce wrote:
She quietly said
“It makes me feel like cry.”
Like cry. The juxtaposition
Of these two words stuck
With me and prompted
The title of these works,
Like Love.
Like Love – Part Two was a multi-media installation exploring the concept of care through a collaboration with Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme for adults with learning disabilities. Over two months, the participants discussed to camera their experiences of love and care in weekly activities set by Boyce. They also set activities for Boyce. The artist filmed the group and their support staff from Liverpool City Council dancing on Crosby Beach to the sounds of their favourite love songs.
This activity, along with details of other encounters with care, inspired and informed the exhibition, which consisted of filmed interviews, reworked drawings made into large format prints, and a silent film, presented as a fragmentary experience, thus drawing our attention to the demands of looking and listening, and capturing a sense of time.
Discussing the premise for Like Love, Boyce wrote ‘I am no longer the central attention in the work I make. Increasingly, over the past decade, I have involved the participation of other people. I usually ask them to perform for me and use their responses as the basis for the artworks.’
Boyce was invited by the Bluecoat to curate an exhibition alongside Like Love by four emerging artists, titled Action.
