I Need to Believe The World is Still Beautiful is part of Boswell’s body of work concerned with celebrating and giving agency to the female nude, de-centering the dominant, white, male gaze and saluting women who use their bodies when they haven’t been permitted to use their voices. Created using outtakes from sessions in the artist’s studio, Boswell put forward provocations inspired by Audre ‪Lorde‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬’s essay, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, and asked for women to explore emotional states of protest and resistance. The work embodies a kaleidoscopic moment of unbridled freedom, focusing on the real women’s bodies that inhabit it. The title is inspired by a comment made by Sami C Hillyer, a trans woman, when responding to Boswell’s provocations as part of Mutumia (2016) and The Words I Do Not Have Yet (2017). Born in Nairobi to a Kikuyu mother and British Kenyan father, and raised in the Middle East, Boswell combines traditional draftswomanship with digital technology to create drawings, animations and installations.

Sapar Contemporary
Gallery + Incubator
9 N. Moore St
New York, NY 10013
United States
+1 (0) 617 921 2004