Women of Record


Women of Record is a soundwork for headphones in seven parts, which showed at Knole House as part of A Woman's Place exhibition in 2018. The exhibition commissioned six contemporary art works that highlighted the progression towards women’s equality from Lubaina Himid, CJ Mahoney, Emily Speed, Lindsay Seers, Alice May Williams and Melanie Wilson.

Melanie’s sound work takes inspiration from the lives of Lady Anne Clifford and Lady Frances Cranfield, both residents of Knole. It invites connections between their experiences as 17th century women and the lives of contemporary British women, using Knole as the thread. The piece voices extracts from Cranfield’s letters and Clifford’s autobiography, placing them alongside first person accounts of women today; women whose experiences echo or answer those of Anne and Frances.

Weaving three dimensional sound recordings together with an original score and multi-layered narrative, this richly detailed sound piece connects the listener to Knole as a witness to the progressive spirit of female endurance across time, and the legacy that presses on.


Listen to excerpts here 

Written & composed by Melanie Wilson
Adapting the letters of Frances Cranfield and the diaries of Anne Clifford

Voice of Anne Clifford - Madeleine Worrall
Voice of Frances Cranfield - Lucy Ellinson

Contributing Women of Record:
Lorena Rivero de Beer, Alice Hobden, Emily Mytton,
Helen Rana, Freya Sackville-West, Lindsay Wright


Link:
awomansplace.org.uk





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