The Listening Stick
2015 to 2019
In collaboration with Judy Nakazato
Revoicing stories of the excavation of a bronze age timber circle from the north Norfolk coast in 1999.
Click here to go to the project site
Artists Sally Stenton and Judy Nakazato’s art installations in the coastal landscape of Norfolk led them unexpectedly into a new phase of research. Via a circuitous route they began to discover the hidden narratives surrounding the removal of a 4,000 year old timber circle. ‘The circle with an upturned tree stump at its centre acquired the name ‘Seahenge’ following media interest. It was excavated in 1999. The timbers underwent a treatment process to preserve them and some are now on display at the Lynn Museum in Kings Lynn about 12 miles away. The events of the time appear now as a momentary rupture in our assumed shared values about our cultural heritage, and how, whether or why it is important to intervene.
The title for the project is ’The Listening Stick’ which references the process of recording people’s voices (the microphone), the museum commentary (audio guide), the ‘Seahenge’ timbers themselves which have absorbed sound and energy over 1000s of years and the barnacle encrusted piece of bog oak that is now in place to mark the original location of the circle. The concept of the listening stick arose from reports of a meeting that took place in Old Hunstanton which deployed the use of a talking stick so that everyone at the meeting could have their say.
The Listening Stick was performed at a conference at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead in 2016 and was part of Liquid Land, an exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery Cambridge in 2018.