Phil Lynott Rocks by Sonia Boyce OBE RA (b. 1962, London), is a digital and audio artwork that reanimates the legacy of Phil Lynott, the iconic Black frontman of Thin Lizzy, through a series of playful yet politically resonant interventions. Commissioned for Slipstream, a series of covert internet-based. Boyce’s work takes the form of covert online “glitches”—unexpected ringtones and sound fragments embedded in digital spaces—that subtly disrupt the flow of web usage. These haunting audio traces draw attention to the erasure of Black cultural figures in European popular memory, reframing Lynott’s presence as both spectral and subversive.
Rooted in Boyce’s long-standing interest in collaboration, improvisation, and the politics of representation, the piece extends her inquiry into how Black identities are seen, remembered, and reinserted into dominant cultural narratives. Phil Lynott Rocks underscores Boyce’s ongoing engagement with embodied, collective creativity and her challenge to traditional hierarchies in the art world.
The project sits within a broader practice that spans installation, sound, photography, and performance, and complements works like The Audition (1997) and Do You Want to Touch? (1996–97), which explore the material and symbolic presence of the Black body. Boyce’s work—recognized globally, including with a Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale—continues to shape how we think about race, memory, and visibility in contemporary art.
Phil Lynott Rocks is commissioned and curated by Film and Video Umbrella with support from the New Media Fund of Arts Council England.
