Phoebe Boswell, is a multi-media artist and film maker based in London, UK. She has won awards in the UK and Ukraine, and has been described as "a very distinct voice that is full of power and energy", "one of the most exciting young artists working today".
Early life
Phoebe Boswell was born in Nairobi, Kenya, the daughter of Timothy, a pilot, and Joyce, a teacher. They moved to Oman when she was two years old, and then to Bahrain three years later. She attended St. Christopher's School in Isa Town, Bahrain, followed by Hurtwood House. Moving to London, Boswell studied at Central St. Martins, University of the Arts London and the Slade School of Art at the University of London. She then moved back to Bahrain to make sense of her expatriate childhood, and a solo exhibition comprising portraits and recorded conversations was held at the National Museum in Bahrain, and published as Bahrainona. She also co-founded the arts society, Elham. Her graduate film The Girl With Stories in Her Hair was nominated for a number of awards, including Best Film at the British Animation Awards Public Choice, Best Student film at the Bradford Animation Festival, and Best Animation in Rushes Soho Shorts.
Career
Phoebe Boswell's multimedia art works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in the UK, the US, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Italy. She has won the first ever Sky Academy Arts Scholarship, and the $20,000 Special Prize in the 2017 Future Generation Prize in Kiev, which led to her work Mutumia being shown at the Vienna Biennale the same year. Her work has been described as using "layered methods of storytelling" to explore cultural roots and identity and "transient middle points and passages of migration". It deals with "the subject of frailty and belief systems", "questions the misrepresentation of the female and the Black body in society and culture", and "recast as a site of power and heroism".
Filmography
2016 Dear Mr Shakespeare, commissioned by the British Council and the Guardian to commemorate 400 years since William Shakespeare’s death; selected for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival
2011 The Pendle Witch Child, BBC4, presented by Simon Armitage, directed by Ros Ereira, animated by Phoebe Boswell.
2010 Sorry To Hear You Impaled Yourself on the Roof of Edinburgh College of Art, commissioned and produced by 12foot6, directed and animated by Phoebe Boswell, story told by Andrew Morgan.
2009 The Girl With Stories In Her Hair, commissioned by the National Gallery, produced by Central St Martins College of Art, written, directed, performed and animated by Phoebe Boswell, music composed by Andres Franco Medina-Mora.
2009 Bunty, written, directed and animated by Phoebe Boswell
Exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions
2017 Mutumia, Future Generation Prize, Kiev, and Venice Biennale
2017 Being Her, The Old Fort and the Women's Jail Galleries, Johannesburg
