As a final commission for her Quay Words Summer residency on the theme of ‘Vessels’, Sarah Acton developed the spoken word piece ‘Book of the Exe’.
by Sarah Acton, writer-in-residence for our July 2024 ‘Vessels’ Season
During my summer residency I engaged with the theme through embodied writing and research practice, walking repeated circular routes, together with research at the archives and collecting conversations and memories on route and also chatting to visitors in the Wharfinger’s office at the Exeter Custom House about the Ship’s Canal, Exe River waters and stories of Quayside ships, goods and workers.
My original spoken word piece weaves fragments; voices and conversations real and imagined, and explores memory as relationship to this place and the past – alive in the present. What if the River remembers everything it has witnessed and experienced and speaks, what does it sound like when we listen for timeslips as we walk the Quay today, their emotional resonance storying the waters, tow paths and rooms of Custom House?
Book of the Exe was first broadcast in collaboration with musician Emma Welton as a podcast on River Radio in September, produced by Art Work Exeter. Thank you to everyone involved in bringing this piece together.