engrained voices

About the Book

Norfolk is steeped in story. Whether we are travelling along the coast, through the loam-rich farmlands, across the sandy brecklands, among the inland waterways of the broads, or over the marsh and fenlands to the west of the county; whether we are threading the Saxon and Medieval streets of Norwich, Kings Lynn or Thetford, stories are everywhere. These stories that are held in landscape are what the Aboriginal peoples would call the ‘dreaming’ of a place. When they are told the sleeping landscape reveals its dreams. Its secrets are disclosed. The medium is the breath – the spoken and the sung word. In this exhibition the narratives of place are returned to the bedrock of landscape. Breath is become stone. The chisel leaves traces in the stone in the same way that the blade of the plough furrows the field or the bird’s foot marks the mud… but it carries with it traces of the voices of our ancestors, engrained fragments of ancient stories. Visit the Engrained voices website to find out more.

About the Author

Teucer Wilson is a designer, stone carver and letter-cutter. He trained as an architectural stone carver and mason before working at Richard Kindersley’s Studio in London for 5 years. Here a passion for lettering and a real understanding of letterforms was instilled. Teucer set up his workshop in Norfolk in 2000 and was awarded a Crafts Council Development Award in 2001 and he has been producing mainly commissioned work since then. He makes a range of work from Public Art pieces, sculptures for private settings, relief carvings, inscriptions, plaques and memorials. For Teucer the dialogue with his clients is an important part of his practice, which helps to inform the design process. Working within the perceived constraints of a commission while responding to the unique circumstances and dialogue within that commission is the creative space Teucer normally inhabits, therefore ‘engrained voices’ was an opportunity to collaborate in a different way. Hugh Lupton’s interest in traditional music, in street theatre, in live poetry, and in myth, resulted in him becoming a professional storyteller in 1981. For twelve years he toured Britain with the ‘Company of Storytellers’. Their work was instrumental in stimulating a nation-wide revival of interest in storytelling. Since the mid-nineties he has worked as a solo performer and collaborator. In 2006 he and Daniel Morden were awarded the Classical Association Prize for ‘the most significant contribution to the public understanding of the classics’. His work with musician Chris Wood has resulted in commissions from Radio 3 and the ‘Song of the Year’ at the BBC folk awards. He tells stories from many cultures, but his particular passion is for the hidden layers of the English landscape and the stories and ballads that give voice to them. His first novel ‘The Ballad of John Clare’ was published in 2010.