THE SCREAMING STONES OF STOKKØYA
The Screaming Stones of Stokkøya are a series of breath-activated sculptures which mimic the call of the Common Swift, the world’s most airbourne bird. The sculptures gather and tell a story of local and global migration and its role in sustaining a thriving, resilient ecological and social environment while also prompting us to consider what it means to call a place home. The handheld sculptures are housed within Coop Supermarket - a familiar place for community gathering and sharing. When the sculptures are blown in unison by a group, they imitate the sound of a colony of Swifts - ‘a scream’. This act of mimicking the swift is encouraged by The Swift Conservation Society and is said to call the birds down to explore potential new nesting sites. A series of hand-crafted bird boxes accompany the sculptures, built from wood salvaged from local disused structures and installed in the eaves of the supermarket. Providing these bird boxes celebrates making the uninhabitable, habitable and establishes a safe site for these birds to return to annually, and welcome new life to the island.
During the spring breeding season, community members are encouraged to practise the new tradition of using the sculptures to call the birds down to nest. A swift migration calendar hangs alongside the sculptures in Coop to show where in the world the swifts are throughout the year and indicated when the community should start practicing the ‘Spring Scream’. At the culmination of the residency we held a social event at Coop where we served shots of warm milk and Poperati made by Stokkøy Bakeri; an Italian biscuit from the Puglia region which is approximately where the swifts would have been at the time of the event. We also rehearsed the Spring Scream together as a collective ceremony and a gesture to the swifts of Stokkøya; offering them refuge within the local ecosystem and also as farewell to the swifts while they migrate south.
At the culmination of the residency we held a social event at Coop where we served shots of warm milk and Poperati made by Stokkøy Bakeri; an Italian biscuit from the Puglia region which is approximately where the swifts would have been at the time of the event. We also rehearsed the Spring Scream together as a collective ceremony and a gesture to the swifts of Stokkøya; offering them refuge within the local ecosystem and also as farewell to the swifts while they migrate south.
A collaborative artwork by Millie Earthy, Georgia Gendall, Sid Smith and Eleanor Turnbull. For Stokkøyart 2024.