Project Space: Charys Wilson

CCA Derry~Londonderry are excited to welcome the second of our 2022 Graduate Awardees, Charys Wilson, to our Project Space in January and February 2023.

For the project, Charys has create an installation entitled traces of time, that builds on the work shown in her MFA Graduate Show.

Following on from her MFA installation, Charys wanted to further explore the projection of the shadow of a flag, stripped of all symbolism and focusing the viewer on its physicality, encouraging the viewer to see things differently, in a more meditative way.

This piece was inspired by a walk home late one night in Belfast in the early hours. Charys stopped and watched the shadow of a flag projected by a sodium light, almost enveloping an entire house front. As it swayed smoothly and silently across their windows, the artist questioned what it would look like from within; would it have the same meditative, calming flow as it did from the outside?

traces of time makes use of CCA's project space as though it’s an entire set. Screening off the windows, accentuating their beauty and shape. The subtle und undulating movement of the shadow is created in real time, cast from a miniature flag. Each window has a different feel: the far window pulses, in another the shadow whips in and out, and the in the window closest to the door, the shadow flows. As the viewer walks from side to side, from window to window, definition, and light shifts.

The installation is best viewed from the Derry Walls opposite.

Supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Derry City & Strabane District Council.

Image: 3 in the morning, Charys Wilson

[ID: A window outline is projected in a black space. The projection has a warm orange tinge, and on the outline there is the shadow of vertical blinds and a blind operating rod. On the right side of the window, there is the shadow of a flag that appears to be blowing in wind.]