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‘I think for us to know our own place in the world, and to have a connection with our time, we need to know about our own history, and we need to know as well the impact of our presence on the world and the land.  

And the only way we can understand that is by knowing the impact on the land and the world 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 1000 years ago. And for us to have meaning in what we can do today, the difference we can make today, we need to understand our own hinterland. And we can only do that with history and archaeology.’ 

‘…if I ever become a museum specimen I hope people will look at my story!’ 

Karolina Raczynski was commissioned to produce an audio work as part of the England’s Creative Coast programme alongside Mariana Castello DeBall’s public town-wide artwork Walking through the town I followed a pattern on the pavement that became the magnified silhouette of a woman’s profile. Mariana chose to respond to The Frankish Woman, whose ancient remains were discovered in Eastbourne at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on St Anne's Hill in 1997. An element of Mariana’s work took place at Whitbread Hollow on the South Downs where the shape of a giant hairpin, the most magnificent of the funerary objects, was inscribed in chalk. 

Dig Deep, recorded in 2021 over zoom during the UK's third national lockdown,  combines extracts from interviews with residents and historians who have connections to, or experience of the St Anne’s Hill archaeological digs in 1990s. The audio work Dig Deep is in three parts and captures thoughts and ideas about the meaning of the objects the Frankish woman was buried with.  

Christine Binnie 

Trista Clifford 

Kelly Van Doorn 

Camilla Francombe 

Laura Murphy 

Claire Piper 

Jo Seaman 

Hellen Warren 

John Warren  

With thanks to Archaeology South-East UCL, Eastbourne Natural History & Archaeological Society and Heritage Eastbourne. 

Karolina Raczynski is an artist filmmaker originating from Essex, whose practice draws on the concepts of community, public space and technology. She seeks to merge her background in Expanded Cinema within socially focused interactions and collaborations by using new technology and a broader form of documentary work. Her work, often using performance, video, film, Internet, public intervention and sound, is interested in how the audience receive and respond to these events. 

This project was part of a wider engagement programme led by artist Amy Leung.

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