Weir Pool Triptych, 2025

The Weir Pool Triptych sits alongside my 2022 Chalk Streams series, both made on the River Test in Hampshire in the south of England. The Test is a quintessential English chalk stream with a long history of being managed for the purpose of salmon and trout fishing. Chalk streams were frequently modified in the Victorian era, numerous structures such as weirs and culverts were added to control and direct the flow of water and create an idealized version of an idyllic wild river. I visited this river many times as a child, crossing its walkways and bridges, standing above the weirs as huge volumes of water roared below. My parents would describe the journey of migratory salmon battling their way upriver to spawn and I was transfixed by the idea of being carried down through the gaps in the woodwork and into the water below. Simultaneously, it filled me with a captivating horror and a wonderful sense of intrigue. The enormous noise, the contrast between the mesmerising stillness above and the roaring tumult below became a recurring dream of mine and part of my relationship with this river. As an adult I returned to the River Test in 2022/2023 to make the Chalk Streams series and found myself on the same weirs, gazing down into the blackness. The hectic movement was overwhelming and it was hard to grasp anything but the power of the water. The incredible noise blocked out all other thought and once again I felt strangely propelled towards it, swept in and down, borne into the flow of the tumultuous black waters.