Clee Hill, 2004, Black basalt “dhustone”
Having recently moved to the Ludlow area, Stephen Cox was drawn to explore the quarry high above his new home on the Clee Hill which turned out a familiar looking black basaltic stone called ‘dhustone’ similar to the stone he had been using in India for the past 20 years. Eager to engage with the fabric of this new territory, he was enthusiastic when the Meadow Gallery approached him with a proposal for new commission and exhibition. When it was pointed to him that the Clee Hill featured in pride of place on the outstanding early medieval map held in nearby Hereford Cathedral which had already captured his imagination, he immediately knew what shape that sculpture would take. Cox, like so many in this area had been immediately touched by this solitary hill, which to him ‘resembles a sphinx presiding over the landscape’. Selecting stone he worked in the Clee Hill quarry as he had done in many quarries around the globe; once again he was in his element. The poignant tiny 13th century squiggle from the Mappa Mundi was scaled up and reinvented as a monumental piece weighing 25 tons. By ‘creating a mountain out of a mountain’ Cox acknowledges in passing the distinguished landscape tradition of British art.