I’m exploring memory, response, and the imaginary because I wonder what it is to be in the world when we can see that history is no longer stable. I’m fascinated by repetition, especially when it involves memory and its traces. I work with the idea that we see with our memory, and our memories activate the objects we see. As such, we see more than the object in front of us. We see an imaginary image formed by fragments of remembered experiences that mingle with an elusive something within an object that attracts us.
I’m exploring memory, response, and the imaginary because I wonder what it is to be in the world when we can see that history is no longer stable. I’m fascinated by repetition, especially when it involves memory and its traces. I work with the idea that we see with our memory, and our memories activate the objects we see. As such, we see more than the object in front of us. We see an imaginary image formed by fragments of remembered experiences that mingle with an elusive something within an object that attracts us.
I explore the way memory fuels the imagination to see. Currently, this process involves rephotographing old photographs with a macro lens on my iPhone camera. It is an intimate process involving combined touch and vision to capture an imaginary image from the original photograph. I’m looking deeply into obscure areas of these photographs to visualise that place where memory and image intersect. This creates a new imaginary scene that comes from the original but is not a reproduction of the original.
Looking deeply to reframe tiny areas of a photograph creates new and ambiguous possibilities. We begin to see what we don’t see, and we begin to tell what can’t be told. The images I create suggest a narrative, but they never reveal what the story is exactly. Because any narrative can be given to these images, none can stick to them. They become free-floating fragments, like forgotten memories that continue to return to influence our actions.
Memory in my work is not meant as a negation of history or a retelling of it, rather it is a way of measuring the recurrence of time. Memory here allows for the past to resurface in the present through the image. The resulting image is a combination of looking (seeing with memory) and the encounter (perceiving the object). Looking deeply in this project means visualising the place where memory and an image combine to create an imaginary scene.
I am an artist-curator and academic researcher. i was recently awarded a PhD degree in Fine Art from Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. However, my route to PhD study has come from practice, not academia. In 2013-14 I was awarded an Arts Council England grant for curating This ‘Me’ of Mine, a travelling group exhibition exploring self in our digital age and how objects mediate emotion. This project led to my PhD, where these themes and the prevalence of repetition in my work has been developed into a philosophically based praxis. In 2017, my work was selected as part of Remise en forme at École Superieur des Beaux Arts in Nîmes, France. This project was in conjunction with the retrospective Supports/Surfaces at Carré d’Art Contemporary Art Museum of Nîmes, whose curators were involved in selecting work for Remise en forme. In 2018-19, I was accepted to a year-long research residency with The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK where I created a series of over 40 digitally altered images from photographs taken within the museum galleries. These images, which explore intuition and the fantasies that flash through the mind when looking, are realised as UV prints on bible paper, a transparent book, and a video that replicates the experience of reading the book. My latest work involves rephotographing a personal photographic collection, looking deeply to frame the invisible attraction of an image. My time is split between France and the UK.
CURRENT ROLES
Associate Lecturer in Contextual Studies, Cambridge School of art, Anglia Ruskin University, 2020 to present.
Doctoral Candidate, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, Submitted Aug 2020.
Member of the Operations Board, StoryLab Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, 2018 to present
Managing Editor, Ruskin Arts Publications, 2018 to present
Independent Artist, Curator and Writer, 2010 to present
EDUCATION
Fine Art PhD, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 2015 to 2020
Independent Study in Art Practice, Theory & History, 1986 to 2010
Private Painting Instruction, Gaela Erwin, Louisville, Kentucky, 2005
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, 1985-86
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, AFA, 1981-84
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Defending Creative Practice, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019
Making Creativity Pay, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019
Communicating Research, Creative Practice Methods Workshop 4, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, co-project management 2019
Theorem 2016 – 2019, Annual PhD Research exhibition and symposium, editor of peer review book of research essays, Anglia Ruskin University, project management 2016 – 2019
Phantom – project management, curation, and exhibition, second case study for PhD, 2017
This ‘Me’ of Mine, touring exhibition, symposium, artist talk series, and companion book, ACE funded, project management, 2013 – 2014
PRESENTATIONS/TALKS
The Intertextual Resonance of Myth and the Dialectic Image, EARN International Conference, University of Leeds, conference presentation, 2019
The New Dialectics of Seeing, Format19 International Photography Conference, University of Derby, conference presentation, 2019
Exhibition as Matrix, Theorem, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2017
When Narrative goes Missing, Code: StoryLab, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2017
Phantom Symposium with Caron Freeborn – organiser, moderator, 2017
The Simulacral Self: an autobiographical comparison, theory:practice, Anglia Ruskin University, conference presentation, 2016
Invisible Agitations, FARU, Anglia Ruskin University, Artist talk, 2016
The Self-Position in Creative Arts Research, Sense|Experiment|Surprise|Understanding, Nottingham Trent University, conference presentation, 2016
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
The Expanded Mirror, Final exhibition for PhD, online at www.expandedmirror.online
The Window Project – Winter Showreel, Art Language Location, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, 2019
Citation Exhibition, EARN International conference, Project Space: School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at University of Leeds, 2019
Cambridge Summer Open, Art at the Alison Richard Building, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 2019
The Archive and the Contested Landscape, part of The Festival of Ideas, Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge, 2018
Take Me There, Heong Gallery, Downing College, University of Cambridge, hosted by Power and Vision: The Camera as Political Technology, CRASSH Research Group, 2018
Remise en forme, l’Hôtel Rivet à l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, in conjunction with the exhibition, Supports/Surfaces at Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, 2017
Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2017
A project space called ‘I’, ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, solo exhibition, first case study for PhD, 2015
Seeing Beckett, International “Beckett in the Regions” conference, AHRC funded “Staging Beckett”/ Liverpool Irish Festival, collaborative research project between Universities of Chester, Reading, Liverpool John Moores, and the V&A Museum, 2014
A5, Lubomirov-Easton Gallery at Art Athina, Athens Greece, 2014
SELECTED CURATION
Double Time, ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, UK, 2019
[email protected], ARTHOUSE1 Gallery, London, UK, 2018
Infinity, Arthouse1 Gallery, London, UK, 2017
Phantom, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2017
Theorem, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge, 2016
Grit, Arthouse1 Gallery, London, UK 2016
Desire Path, ARTHOUSE1, London, 2015 Exhibition Design: Hephzibah Rendle-Short and Kate Palmer
Recursive, No Format Gallery, London 2014
This ‘Me’ of Mine, APT Gallery/Georges House Gallery/Kaleidoscope Gallery/Art School Gallery, Ipswich Museum, London/Folkestone/Sevenoaks/Ipswich, UK touring exhibition, 2013
SELECTED GRANTS/AWARDS/COMMISSIONS/RESIDENCIES
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, residency, 2018-19
University Arts Council Grant, Anglia Ruskin University, grant, 2017
Private commission, USA, 2015
Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts, grant, 2013
HomeinOne.com, corporate sponsorship, 2013
Visualplanet, corporate sponsorship, 2013
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Boyer, J., 2020.The new dialectics of seeing. In: Mythologies, Identities and Territories of Photography: Forever//Now, ISBN: 9781527563391, pp. 2-10
Boyer, J., co-editor, 2020. Flag>Enigma>Disruptor. In: Ways of Thinking. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9781912319022, pp. 21-30
Boyer, J., ed., 2019. Theorem 2018. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9781912319008, 250p
Boyer, J., 2019. Simulacra and the structure of the work of art. JAWS 5(1), pp. 65-78. ISSN: 20552823
Boyer, J., ed., 2018. Contemporary Cambridge. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146176, 136p
Boyer, J., co-editor, 2018. The Ruskin Songbook. Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146169, 84p
Boyer, J., ed., 2018. Constellations and Canons, In: Theorem 2017, Cambridge: Ruskin Arts Publications, ISBN: 9780993146152, pp. 73-83
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Noga, L., 2017, ‘Phantom at Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge’, peer review
Minton, D., 2015, A project space called ‘I,’ a-n Reviews, Sept, found at: https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/a-project-space-called-i
Golding, M., 2015, Jane Boyer: Experience as Collage, exhibition essay for A project space called ‘I’
Sheerin, M., 2014, Repetition Ain’t What It Used to Be, Bad at Sports, Oct, found at: http://badatsports.com/2014/jane-boyer-repetition-aint-what-it-used-to-be/
McNay, A., 2013, Review of This ‘Me’ of Mine at APT Gallery, Deptford, Art-Corpus, Mar, found at: http://art-corpus.blogspot.fr/2013/03/review-of-this-me-of-mine-at-apt.html
Works held in private collections in the United States, United Kingdom, Cyprus, France and Italy
