Martin Boyce

House Blessing (from the White Album by Joan Didion 1979)

Maker

Martin Boyce (Scottish, b. 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland)

Title

House Blessing (from the White Album by Joan Didion 1979)

Year

1999

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Dimensions

Dimensions variable

Identification

Edition

Edition 1 of 3

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Object Number

2015.66

Type

Exhibition History

Martin Boyce
When Now is Night
Oct 02, 2015 – Jan 31, 2016

Label copy

This work features a prayer sometimes embroidered and displayed in traditional American homes. The text, as discussed by Joan Didion in her classic book of essays The White Album (1979), evokes the sense of protection and security that for many Americans was shattered by the home invasions and murders perpetrated in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers. Boyce’s placement of the house blessing within jagged lines resembling a broken window prompts a reflection on how familiar spaces can become compromised, strange, and even threatening.

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Tombstone

Martin Boyce (Scottish, b. 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland)
House Blessing (from the White Album by Joan Didion 1979), 1999
Wall painting
Dimensions variable
Gift of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd 2015.66

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