Rocks I have Taken

Rocks I have Taken is a visual album of stories, sounds, and videos of rocks that I have collected from places I have been or places I am from. 
Each location is accompanied by a brief, and non-extensive overview of the history of the land this rock inhabited.
Each location has in one way or another felt the invasion of human presence. These are stories both
ancient and present, which tell the different paths of exchanging histories, conquered and stolen lands, lost
cultures, languages and lives.
Each story is accompanied by a video of the untouched rocks, creatively depicted by Maria to form graphical
scores and visual narrations of music which she commissioned from seven colleagues from around the world.
Lastly each story, and each video, is accompanied by transformational carvings of the virgin rock to sculpted
Venus figurines. Maria felt within each of these rocks she could clearly see the shape of a woman. These forms
encased within the rocks for her where the reminders of the stories, lives, and experiences which had been lost
within the chaos of the land, years, and turmoil from men’s need for conquest. She carefully dug out each form
with hammer, chisel, and dremel, until the final sculptures of the modern Venus figurines where revealed.

I would like to thank the contributors to the album, who gave their sounds as storytelling

Brooklyn, NY, United States
Alessia Anastassopulos

Calle Alcazabilla, Málaga, Spain
Ronan Whittern

Kingsdale Master Cave, Gragareth, England-
Dejana Sekulic

Dachau Concentration Camp, Dachau, Germany-
Brice Catherin 

Hrubá Skála, Bohemian Paradise, Czechia-
Katie Oswell

Kerrera, Inner Hebrides, Scotland -
Henry McPherson

Tarraleah, Tasmania, Australia -
Maria Sappho

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States-
Colin Frank

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Maria Sappho