Testing Ground: Darren Nixon

Artist Darren Nixon is taking over CCA’s Project Space for a month as part of Testing Ground, to try out new ideas and take risks with his practice. He will be in situ for two fortnights from 9–23 October and 27 November–11 December 2024.

Darren will use his time to create and present a multimedia installation/live performance event which looks at what it is to feel like a tourist in your own hometown. During a recent collaborative residency at PASE Platform Venice - as part of collaborative duo Rowland’s Leaving - Darren found a way to work on the various strands of his practice in one project. Incorporating painting, collage, sculptural installation, moving image, music and live performance, their work pulled all these things together to create something which became more than the sum of its parts.

With a working title of ‘A Tourist In My Hometown’ - will look at a similarly complex set of feelings he experiences when visiting here, his home town. Although happy to see my family and friends, each visit also brings into focus a lot of feelings of unresolved shame and guilt I have around leaving as a teenager. Beyond this exploration of his own personal history he wants to use the work to look at the wider question of those times when we feel filled with guilt about decisions which we do not regret.