Ghana

Since 2003, Virginia Ryan has produced, at her studio in Accra, Ghana, more than one thousand 9.5 x 11.5 inch sculptural paintings collectively titled Castaways. Each of the pieces is a collage composition created from washed-up materials collected along four shorelines in and outside of Accra. All the works are white-washed, and flicked through with grey-gold, resonant with the colors of foam and sand as the waves break on the very shores from where the inhabitants were once taken and enslaved to build the new world. Castaways are exhibited as a collective artwork, entire walls or rooms with the pieces hung close together in rows, as if in a continuous wave.

This visual environment is accompanied by Anomabo Shoreline, a continuous ambient surround soundtrack composed by Steven Feld from beach sounds at Anomabo, one of Ryan's key collection points, and an important West African coast slaving center. As viewers move toward the waves of Ryan's Castaways on the walls, the ocean sounds come toward them,and what washes out and what washes in can be heard as the Gold Coast becoming the Black Atlantic.

An additional ambient accompaniment to the installation is a 15 minute ambient video by Feld, Where Water Touches Land‚ about Ryan's process of collecting and transforming environmental beach data into Castaways. The DVD is projected continuously adjoining the main exhibit. Liner notes and details at voxlox.net Location sales at exhibit sites and select museum stores: $25/EUR 20/£15. Discounted internet sales $20 from cdbaby.com