Ditchling Beacon, Dew Pond
Jem Southam British
Not on view
Since the 1970s Southam has focused on the traces of human intervention in the landscape, primarily in southwest England, where the artist lives and works. This dew pond at Ditchling Beacon (near Brighton), was excavated and then lined with layers of chalk and clay to hold water for grazing sheep or cattle on high ground. Dew ponds in southern England are documented as far back as the ninth century, but many were constructed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries after the Acts of Enclosure privatized common land and restricted the roaming of livestock. In his book Landscape Stories (2005), Southam writes of the ponds’ otherworldy quality: "Full, they are like a mirrored disk or an eye reflecting heavens. Empty, they resemble craters made by celestial objects crashing into the ground."
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