As part of the Estuary Festival 2025. A guided walk in three parts devised by multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie. The project as a whole positions itself as a folk horror story told in many parts, taking us on a mythic journey that both connects us to the land and its history, and encourages us to look inward.
It invites us to see the land as a waste land, but also to see it in its beauty. The artist inspires us to gain a sense of ownership of this particular landscape through collective action.
The audience will find an undulating artwork fixed on the ground to mark the start and end point of the walking experience. Using headphones, the audience will be guided by listening, walking and visioning in a ritual preparation towards action.
In the artist’s words, each of the audio walks is:
‘A guided visualisation
to draw people to the water
You are the vessel, the work will fill you and sustain you, hold you to help guide
Spoken, sung, played by the mythic creatures of this land
The stories returning
Rising up out of the mud
A magical place - feel the magic and the beauty
So much has been dumped
But it has endured and renewed
Now join in this renewal
You are an adventurer in a magical land
Folk Horror - so you’re seeing the things around us that we normalise and accept - for the horror that they are.’
Sound is a key element of these audio walks. Nwando uses sound in her work in a similar way to a film soundtrack - the sound might make audience members feel uneasy, and this chimes with the uncannyness, the characteristics of the landscape, and the mythical stories that inspired the project.
Nwando uses spatialised sound to help audiences feel the different qualities of the space they are walking into. Through experiencing the different layers of the spatialised sound, the listener almost has the sensation of being in multiple places at the same time.
This three-dimensional sound experience creates the ASMR tingles and shivers, and these connect deep in the nervous system.
The sound can at times come across as ghostly, to evoke the idea of ‘apparitions’, present in many of the mythical stories Nwando refers to.
By providing this film soundtrack ‘score’ the artist aims to encourage us to feel as the protagonists of our own story - Gravesend - The explanation of the myth.
All day - Please check event description for headphones pick-up times.
| Free |
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Address
A Circular and Never Ending Ritual of Love to the Estuary - Estuary Festival 2025
St George's Church
DA11 0DJ
Contact