SAT 30 APRIL – SAT 28 MAY
PROJECT SPACE

An exhibition by Golden Thread Gallery Mentoring & Exhibition Award winner Drydan Wilson, focussing on the physical actions of skateboarding as a way of making art. The exhibition looks at the interaction between the practitioner and their environment, exploring the distortion of architecture and the subversion of its original purpose.

Artist Statement

Combining my artistic and skateboarding practices I am interested in challenging the boundaries of what a contemporary art practice can be and the possibility for it to critique social, capitalist, and regulatory structures. Using the subculture of skateboarding as a vehicle, my work examines how we negotiate space, the politics of space and the distortion created through the re-appropriation of landscapes and its architectures, and how it can create social awareness and even advocate for social change.

I have a multi-disciplinary approach, often using sculpture, installation, drawing, video, text and sound in the creation of my artworks. Most recently I have been developing interactive elements within my work, where, for example, walking on a piece of steel creates a distorted sound that is played back to you through speakers, transforming the viewer into participator/performer, while adding a playful element that heightens the experience in something as everyday as walking.

Drawing on my own experiences and conditioning of the skateboarding subculture, I use materials and forms that reflect skateboarding terrain, working processes that reflect the DIY culture within skating. I replicate camera angles from skate videos, incorporate skate terminology as text within the work, I hint toward advertising strategies used in magazines and use the skateboard itself as a material and tool.

Through isolating and combining various fragments of skating subculture, I aim to highlight the creative potential, artistic formalities, and affordances of materials to create artworks that evoke a new way of looking and thinking about space and its potential.”

About the Artist

Drydan Wilson is an artist making work based around his everyday activities and involvement in skateboarding and its subculture. Drydan graduated from Belfast School of Art, in BA Fine Art in 2016 and from MFA Fine Art in 2021. Drydan has worked and studied in Finland, been the recipient of various art awards and grants. He has worked alongside both local and international artists, produced public artwork and had work featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions, nationally and internationally.


Golden Thread Gallery is supported by: