Dissolving Histories: A Moment in Time takes five artists whose diverse practices seek to capture, explore and explain moments. The nature of time is unsubstantial; a moment, a second, a minute, an hour are all something or nothing depending on the context. How we navigate the art works, the time we choose to spend, alters our experience. Group exhibitions present an interesting dynamic, a power play between the individual and the group. This exhibition seeks to blur the boundaries, to challenge the viewer to decide when one work ends and another begins; to interrupt the time spent on each artist.

Liam Crichton, Erin Hagan, Dorothy Hunter, Kevin Killen and John Rainey have each produced works that speak to a certain moment as well as contributing to a collective voice. While each offer a distinctive practice, curators Peter Richards and Sarah McAvera placed them together as there is a commonality in how their works allow a multitude of readings and encourage alternative explanations. Sculpture, installation, neon and video are all used to capture not just moments of the past, but the moment of looking.

A Moment in Time is the first in the Dissolving Histories series, which itself follows on from the acclaimed Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art. That series was conceived to explore the unreliable nature of history. Our perception of the past can only be subjective: we are inextricably linked to our own experiences, values, memories and truths. It sought to appreciate the different versions of histories that combine through many voices – each instalment had a guest curator who specialised in a certain area of Northern Irish art history. While Dissolving Histories refers to this series, its purpose is different. Each instalment will investigate the notion of history itself.