Displayed at Rose Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025 during the run of Marie and Rosetta, the acclaimed play celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight.
 
Strings of Fire Inscription
The Strings of Fire inscription celebrates the musical legacy of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her pioneering contribution to the development of rock ’n’ roll.
 
Story
Created in dialogue with the sculpture Strings of Fire, the inscription features an excerpt from Desmond Wilcox’s 1957 article, They Call Her ‘Holy Roller’: Rosetta Flies into Rock, published in the Daily Mirror.
 
The inscription captures Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s own words about the music that would become known as rock ’n’ roll, drawing attention to her influence on generations of musicians and her place in the development of modern popular music.
 
Her words are presented in tactile print and translated into braille. A voiced version of the inscription is also accessible via QR code, allowing the words to be experienced in different ways.
 
Presented on a polished wooden base, the inscription can be displayed alongside Strings of Fire or experienced as a work in its own right.
 
Suitable for indoor display.