'Castaways' Project 2003-2008

The Castaways Project was initiated by visual artist and writer Virginia Ryan in 2003. Since that time she has made c. 2000 sculptural paintings, each 9.5 x 11.5 inches, from washed-up materials collected along local shorelines around Accra, Ghana. 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. The works fill walls and rooms, creating an environment concerned with washed-in and washed-out history and memory of displacements, gold and slavery along the one-time African Gold Coast.

In 2006 Ryan invited media artist Steven Feld to collaborate. Feld created an audio environment titled Anomabo Shoreline, from ocean sounds at one of Ryan's collecting places, and an ambient video about the beach environment and Ryan's work to collect and transform the objects.

The Castaways Project package includes a 32 page color catalog of Castaways art by Ryan, and Feld's audio CD and video on DVD, packaged in a DVD box.

Installation includes sound environment