Part of Las Gemelas: Arrival (a lexicon of unmaking)
Above film:
Sonia Boué: Look Well After Yourself (Short Version)
This film documents Boué’s early attempts at pom-pom making for her installation Look Well After Yourself which comprises one hundred handmade pom-poms. Made using a camcorder, the film reflects Boué’s ongoing concern to control the viewer’s gaze. The film is played at half speed, echoing Boué’s sensory experience of time slowing down.
This work builds on a previous film by Boué, The Artist is Not Present, (2022), which employed restricted vistas (a floorscape) to critique Marina Abramović’s use of eye contact in the work The Artist is Present from a neurodivergent perspective.
Here, Boué aims to share aspects of her immersive sensory engagement with wool without fetishising it. Boué employs autistic aesthetics by limiting the viewing aperture and highlighting her sensory focus.
Filmed, edited, and directed by Sonia Boué.
© Sonia Boue 2024
As part of Las Gemelas: Arrival (a lexicon of unmaking)
Sonia Boué and Ashokkumar D Mistry
5 October 2024 – 11 January 2025
Commissioned by John Hansard Gallery
More than a briefcase of pills
This essay, More than a briefcase of pills opens a window to Boué’s groundbreaking writing and publishing practice to explore themes of exile, nostalgia, and inherited trauma. Boué reflects on her family’s experiences during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, adding context to her multiform installation Look Well After Yourself.
The essay weaves together personal narratives, especially Boué’s father José María García Lora’s exile and mental health struggles, and broader themes like postmemory—a term coined by Marianne Hirsch to describe the impact of trauma on subsequent generations. Boué considers how exile shapes identity, grief, and creative expression, particularly through “transgenerational memory care,” a concept introduced by Professor Monica Jato. The essay reveals Boué’s artistic processes and the impact of postmemory on her work.
Please note there are references to mental breakdowns in this essay.
Read the essay HERE
Lexicon of gestures
Image 1
Image 2
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Image 6
All images courtesy Sonia Boué
Photo credits: Images 1, 2, 3, 5 by G. Sian.
Image 4 by Ashokkumar D Mistry
Image 6 by Sonia Boué
Additional links for Look Well After Yourself:
The Neurowilding Blog, Sonia Boué, 2024.
https://neurowilding.blog/2024/08/01/neurowilding-my-way-back/
Felicia Browne: Unofficial War Artist from the series Animating the Archives, Tate Britain, 2015.
https://youtu.be/Y-QXhHpbV_k?si=2kvlT45UwwnQtTkl
Without You I Would Not Exist, short film, Jonathan Moss and Sonia Boué, 2014.
https://vimeo.com/412217006
The Art of Now: Return to Catalonia, radio broadcast, Overtone Productions, BBC Radio 4, 2018.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09w05z7