In Projection Trails (2022) Nichols uses torchlight, mirrors, and locally sourced building materials from sand to steel beams, to create immersive cinematic shadow-drawings that come alive on the walls and ceilings of the dual-level gallery. At the same time, her improvised movements with these objects produce sonic trails through attached contact microphones. Playing the objects as intruments and processing these sounds using a system of guitar pedals from drones to loopers and ambients, Nichols and musician Fabian Jendle explore how the vibrations of the found objects can be processed to create their own live soundtrack. In this work, sculpture, moving image and sound become a kind of hybrid performance.

Projection Trails emerged from a process Nichols and Jendle developed at Hangar, Barcelona, where Nichols undertook a 3-month residency in 2021. This performance and film were realised at CasCaDas, Barcelona in 2022, kindly supported by a Research grant from the University of the Arts London.