Mappa Mundi

19 June - 5 September 2004

Sculpture by Stephen Cox

After working for many years in Italy, France, Egypt, and predominantly India, renowned sculptor Stephen Cox came to set up his main studio on the flanks of the Clee Hill in South Shropshire.

Inspired by the tiny inscription of Clee Hill on the Mappa Mundi, Stephen Cox engaged with the geology of this ancient mountain for a new work, specially commissioned by Meadow Gallery. He used the local dhustone, which he found to be as hard, dark and exhilarating to work as some of the Indian basalt he regularly uses. This piece was shown alongside other recent major pieces, cut by Cox in India, Italy and Egypt.

The exhibition highlighted the interconnectedness of distant and disparate places and suggested subterranean, transcendent links between them. The dhustone pieces, exhibited alongside large sculptural works carved from Etruscan travertino and Egyptian Imperial red porphyry also stressed the specificity of a seemingly unprepossessing place like the Clee Hill and its relevance in a greater universal whole.