O & O
Odyssey Books & Other Press, Minehead & London
   
      Frances Presley and Tilla Brading   
       
   
    Stone Settings   
      

Blurring the boundaries of authorship, text, installation and performance, STONE SETTINGS is a collaborative exploration, through poems and images, of stone monuments on Exmoor, particularly the Neolithic stone settings, rows, longstones and circles. The texts and images that were created on site are affected by the remote landscape and sometimes extreme weather conditions.  They are also a response to the palimpsest of human interventions, from ancient geometry and folklore to the impact of global warming and languages of archaeology. Stone settings are unique to Exmoor in their rough or even random geometric patterns. The authors make extensive use of texts by archaeologists and antiquarians, especially those of Hazel Eardley-Wilmot, who described stone settings as ‘Exmoor’s special puzzle’.  Exmoor’s stone monuments are often small and fragile: their elusive and even disputed existence is an important element in this work.  Some more recent monuments, such as a war memorial, have found their way into the collaboration, and the authors have also created their own ‘stone settings’ as a space for writing and performance.

PUBLISHED IN AUGUST 2010
 
£4.95  (+ p&p UK = £5.70) available from
Odyssey Bks, Shiplap; Flat 2, 43 Quay St Minehead, Som TA24 5 UL [log in to unmask]
Other Press, 19 Marriott Rd, London, N4 3QN   [log in to unmask]

Tilla