Tue, 09/05/2023 - 10:58
Banks Mill affiliate member, Sara Jane Boyles is set to launch her first solo exhibition exploring her family's traumatic experiences of life in the care system and shining the spotlight on the historic treatment of unmarried mothers who were forced to give up their children for adoption.
Sara Jane Boyle’s exhibition ‘What Has Love Got To Do With It’ will feature 25 thought-provoking oil paintings as well as sketches and prints which reflect on her early life in a controversial mother and baby unit along with her mother’s experiences of growing up in the care system in Derby.
Sara has already had the exhibition featured on Leicester Online, as well as BBC Radio Sheffield (1:07:47). Sara was also interviewed by BBC TV News (23 minutes in)
Mum-of-four Sara Jane, will showcase the stunning collection of oil paintings, many embellished with gilded metals and embroidery, at Loughborough’s Sock Gallery from 20 April to 3 June.
The University of Derby Applied Art graduate and member of Derby’s Banks Mill Studios explained: “I was born in 1971 in St Agatha’s, a mother and baby home run by nuns in Sheffield. My mother was sent there and ‘encouraged’ to give me up for adoption which she later refused to do. Consequently, I was put into foster care until she was able to keep me.
“My mother was also sent to an orphanage at the age of two and spent her entire childhood in and out of children’s homes in Duffield and Allestree, finally leaving the care system at eighteen years of age.
“I was an only child, raised by my mother and was a feral child by nature. In my early childhood I had selective mutism and struggled to communicate. Because words were so hard to find I tried to imagine other ways to creatively express myself and so began my long relationship with the arts.
“With this solo exhibition I am beginning to unravel the ties which have bound me to my past but I am also shining the spotlight on an important social issue which has deeply affected my family. While some governments have formally apologised for the historical treatment of unmarried mothers in homes, ours is yet to do this.
“This exhibition is daunting for me because of the personal depth to it, I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve more than ever before and as an artist I feel this is only the beginning of my journey.
“My mother died at the age of 67 and I know our past weighed heavily on her; she felt guilt for taking me back- believing I might have had a better life. However, I passionately believe there should be no shame attached to mothers who have had their babies taken off them and I am sharing my art to spread awareness of such historical wrongs.”
Centrepieces of the collection will be a 150x100cm oil painting The Big Baby along with The Split, Mother Mary and Alexithymia which all relate to the complexities of relationships between mother and child and emotional childhood traumas.
‘What has love got to do with it’ launches at the Sock Gallery, Loughborough Town Hall, Market Place, Loughborough on Thursday 20 April 2023. For more information visit www.saraboyle.com or https://www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk/sock_home . Follow Sara on Instagram at www.instagram.com/saraboyle and Facebook at www.facebook.com/DecorativeAppliedArts .
Press release credit - Jo Hine, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of Derby