Kurt Jackson - Ponds, Pools and Puddles

pond
a small body of water

pool
a small body of standing water

puddle
a small pool of water

When you approach one of these small enclosed bodies of water set into the land you might see it as a mirror reflecting the sky or as a gap in the landscape – maybe almost a hole in the earth, an entrance into the unknown. There is a sense of mystery there – sometimes dark and apparently bottomless and full of beasties, sometimes silver, echoing the light of the sky above; with birds flying through it. No wonder these places became associated with the old stories and tales as well as being used as places of offering in prehistoric times. They’re both a magnet for life and a home to a world of their own – full of life whether amongst the rocks on the foreshore, hidden in the heather and gorse on the moor, lying in a quarry or in the middle of the village green.

These are the places I’ve visited, sat by, walked round, swam and snorkelled in or looked down upon from the carns and cliffs of Cornwall to produce this new body of work. Rock pooling, pond dipping, learning to swim, tadpoling, power for mills and stamps, watering holes for cattle, fish and duck homes, or just a place for watching your own reflection…
a myriad of uses.

Sometimes natural, sometimes manmade.
Named and unnamed.
Permanent and temporary, seasonal or tidal.

Frogspawn, pondweed, reeds, rushes, ripple, heron, water snail, newt, frog, fish, cloud reflection, bathing birds, marsh, splash, stillness. Crab, goby, shanny, blenny, limpet, sea weed, periwinkle, rock, sea sounds, salt, shrimp, tide, mussel, sand, breeze, gull reflection.

Kurt Jackson, 2006

pol
corf byan a dhowr

lyn
corf byan a dhowr sevylyak

lagen
lyn vyan a dhowr

Ha why a dos nes corvow a dhowr an re ma, byan ha kes, settys yn dor, why a alja y weles avel gweder meras may halla dastewynya an ebren, po avel ajy y’n dyrweth – ogasty toll y’n nor martesen, porth aberth y’n ancothvos. Ma sens a gevryn ena – tewl war ueryow ha dywoles del hevel ha luen a vestas, arhans war ueryow, ow taslefa golow a’n ebren a uhon; gans edhyn ow neyja dredho. Nyns yw marth kyn fe tylleryow an re ma o kefrysya gans an whethlow coth kefrys ha usyes rag leow a offrynnow yn termyn kenystorek. Tenven rag bewnans ha tre dhe vys aga honen ynjy – luen a vewnans mar yn mesk an carregy war’n vorva, kelys y’n grug ha’n eythyn war’n un, growedhys yn mengledh po y’n cres an glasen dref. Me a wrug vysytya, esedha dres henna, kerdhes adro, neyja ha snorkelya aberth yn, po meras orth tylleryow an re ma dheworth an carnow hag alsyow Kernow dhe wyl an corf a weyth ma.

Ow trygya, ow sedhya yn pollow, ow tesky neyja, ow whythra rag penynnow, nerth rag melynyow ha stampys, grelynnow, trevow rag puscas ha heyjy, po tyller owth aspya scues agas honen…
muer a usyans.

Gansek traweythyow, po gwres gans mabden.
Gans hanow ha heb hanow.
Parhus hag anbarhus, sesonek po a’n lanwes.

Oyow gwylskyn, dowrles, corsennow, bron, crygh,kerhyth, melwhen dowr, pajerpaw, gwylskyn, pysk, scues a gomol, edhyn ow padhya, gwern, lagyans, calmynsy. Canker, pysk dyawl, shanny, morgronek, brennygen, goumman, gwyhen, carrek, sonyow a’n mor, holen, bybyn-bubyn, mortyd, mesclen, treth, gwyns scaf, scues a wylan.

Kurt Jackson, 2006