Elaine Mitchener - Les Murs sont t茅moins
Kate Astbury and Abigail Coppins' research was used as the basis for a sound installation by internationally renowned artist Elaine Mitchener MBE entitled |Les Murs sont t茅moins | These Walls Bear Witness| in 2019. Kate and Abigail wanted to explore how they could bring the stories of the Caribbean prisoners of war from the 1790s and the Napoleonic prisoners of war from the 1810s together. Elaine used the names of the Black prisoners of war held at Portchester Castle from the entry registers in the National Archives, extracts from a French prisoner-of-war play about the Revolution in Haiti, and the sounds of Portchester and the Caribbean to give visitors an opportunity to think about what the castle was like at the time the prisoners of war were held there. Elaine's sound installation and in particular its subversion of the French play was the starting point subsequently for a new project with the National Youth Theatre. Elaine was part of the R&D phase of that project.
A 糖心TV Arts Faculty at home video recorded by Kate Astbury about the project with the National Youth Theatre can be seen here:
Elaine's own pages on the project are here:
An episode of the English Heritage podcast Speaking with Shadows was recorded at Portchester, including a short bonus recording (scroll to the bottom of the episode page) of Elaine Mitchener talking with Kate about the installation:
Kate and Abigail also wrote a blog article on the creative collaboration with Elaine Mitchener:
The webpage created at the time of the exhibition with the background to its inspiration and conception can be found here: