URGENCIES (2025)

Launch: Saturday 18 January 2025, 7–9pm

URGENCIES (2025) is the fourth edition of CCA Derry~Londonderry’s biennial exhibition of emerging artists connected to our region. Selected from an open call by CCA Director Catherine Hemelryk and Artist Jennifer Trouton, the project aims to chart the different generations of artists coming through as well as the shifting concerns and interests of artists working today.

Precarity and balance of power are themes that thread through many of the artworks in the exhibition. At the entrance, Katrina Cobain’s flickering crimson lithium flame threatens to go out at any moment. The work reflects the disruptions to the supply chain of essential medication and stands at an intersection leading to work by Niall McLaughlin exploring the fickle symbols and signifiers of modern masculinity in Gallery 1, and Gallery 2 Kelly Ewing’s psychedelic take on the ecological collapse of Lough Neagh.

Gallery 1, features Sgàire Wood references heraldic ermine motifs to explore power relations and the ‘real’, using false eyelashes and other makeup accessories. Emily Waszak has used discarded building materials and weavings to construct votive shrines reimagining new worlds from the ashes of the old.

Gallery 2 features Hannah Casey-Brogan’s large scale drawings of seeds on brightly coloured ground. These sit adjacent to research materials charting flooding of the river Faughan the collective working of James Mooney / Alex Pollock / Rodhlann Mossop / Sadhbh Sheeran.

Gallery 3 holds three different approaches to recording and sharing information. Leah Corbett’s work is inspired by her residency at Carnegie Oldpark Library in North Belfast, the contradictions and complexities of its founding philanthropist and the threat of further closures of libraries across NI. Cara Donaghey asks questions about archiving the internet through her work exploring the Geograph website and Aidan O’Neill critiques the role of parachute photographers and outsiders narrating issues with biased positions.

The exhibition continues beyond the gallery walls with site-specific interventions by Emily Waszak across the city and bookmarks by Leah Corbett available from various libraries across NI.

URGENCIES (2025) is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Derry City & Strabane District Council.

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