THE BOYLE FAMILY
The Boyle Family is a group of collaborative artists based in London. There is Mark Boyle, his wife Joan Boyle and their children, Sebastian Boyle and Georgia Boyle. Mark and Joan met in 1957 and at the time Joan was studying art and architecture and bringing up her her first son, Cameron all while running her very own business. Mark was writing poetry in the army. It wasn't long that the two were working on individual pieces before they collaborated together.
Wherever they lived, it became their studio and family and friends were always happy to come along and help them out. It was during this time that Mark and Joan’s children went around the studio helping out and getting really involved. This included things such as helping to finalise and hang the exhibitions, working trips etc.
The Boyle Family aims to make art that does not exclude anything as a potential subject. Over the years, subjects have included: earth, air, fire and water; animals, minerals; insects, reptiles, human beings. The media used have included performances and events; films and projections; sound recordings; photography; drawing; assemblage; painting; sculpture and installation.
Some examples of their work:
The genre of their work would be mixed media, they use multiple methods of constructing their Artworks, and these examples above are all documentary in style, focusing on the textures and the shapes that the roads, brickwork and road paint create, they take the shots from directly above to give a birds eye almost painterly effect.
The art movement is a mixture of abstraction and surrealism because their work gives that impression of being created using a variety of different elements and materials. They are surrealist sculptures that are made to look like pictures rather than an actual sculpture that has been made by hand.
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The formal elements of their work are the use of lines in all of their work as well as a mixture of light and shadowed images. The main shapes that are in their work are very basic, squares, rectangles, and lines. The colours are also a mixture because in some of their work, there is no colour to be seen whereas in others, the colours are vibrant and primary colours. When we look at their work, we can see the texture and detail in their work because they are close-up images. The lighting from what I can see is natural lighting however taking into consideration that the Boyle families work are sculptures, I would of thought that the lighting is artificial. The direction of the light seems to be coming from above the image which could signify the sun shining upon them, however there isn't any shadows created.
In the Boyle Families work, there is a main focus of leading lines in many of their work. They mainly focus on road markings and girds with the occasional add of texture on the road. There is repetition in the fact that most of their work looks similar due to the lines but they all have their own individuality.
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The Boyle Family photograph objects as their work is actually a sculpture. I would say that they focus on urban subjects are their work is more of roads, brickwork and anything else related to lines in the outdoors. The Boyle Family set up their work to make it look and feel like what it's supposed to be of. It is set up to look like something from the everyday life. I think the photographers are trying to tell the viewers to always stay on the same path, don't venture off and just keep following the lines, even if they are curved, broken up or some parts missing. They are trying to say that life isn't all what you expect it to be but always follow the direction that is set for you. You may come across some bumps in the road but don't give up yet and carry on following the path to your destination in life. You could be on the path for years or it could be cut short before you want the journey to end.
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The Boyle Family have inspired me to do my own shoot and see how far my journey lasts and where it takes me. I will mainly focus on leading line's, close up and texture. The Boyle families work is mainly close up therefore you can see all of the detail and texture of their work.