Writing of Stones

Writing of Stones was a site-specific work on the Isle of Portland (Dorset) commissioned by b-side, and developed through an artist residency 2013-2014. Exhibited during the b-side Festival 2014, the work consisted in a spatial sound work composed for and installed in St. George's Church for the duration of the festival, and a limited edition newsprint distributed from the site. The work was complemented by a number of events, including a concert performance of the work inaugurating the festival, a perambulatory tour of St. George's graveyard and a curator conversation with Dr. Cecilia Wee. "Writing of Stones is a site-specific sound work by Duncan Whitley, created for St. George’s Church on Reforne. The artist’s haunting installation resonates within the fabric of the church - built in the mid-eighteenth century of Portland stone - occupying its pews, galleries and nave with the ethereal and elusive medium of sound. The installation invokes the idea of St. George’s and its cemetery as a quiet witness to its environment; testament to human and ecological narratives. Informed by obscure tales from Portland history and folklore, its three ‘chapters’ (The Storm, The Working of Stone, and The Hymn) take us on an abstract journey woven through sound, architecture and memory."