Inside the Circle of the Sun is an interactive installation by Lesley Asare and Katie Fields.

This collaborative work, commissioned by Milton Keynes City Council for Midsummer Festival 2025, is inspired by ancestral clay practices, summer solstice rituals, and solar cosmologies from West Africa, the Mediterranean, and Northern Europe.

At its centre is a circular surface holding sculptural gnomons that track the sun’s movement through shadow and light. Surrounding vessels warm under the sun’s gaze, gathering heat and energy throughout the day.

Interwoven with these solar instruments are ceramic sound vessels, including an Udu drum, Vasijas Silbadoras (Peruvian Whistling Vessels), and ocarinas, crafted in honour of ancestral traditions that understand clay, breath, water, and sound as pathways to spirit and healing.

Visitors are invited to take small offerings from a ring encircling the work, tokens of solstice energy to carry into the darker half of the year. Scattered cairns across the site hold further invitations to reflect, remember, and return.

At twilight, the artists closed the day with a ritual of sound, water, and movement.