SUSANNA HARRIS HUGHES
FINE ART
 
 
 
History of a Wood
As soon as I saw electron micrographs of pollen I started to imagine these small ‘worlds’ from which palaeobotanists could, through radio carbon dating, pinpoint their age and subsequently understand how our world would have looked millions of years ago.

What follows are my visual thoughts on how these microscopic ‘worlds’ record the waves of change which have passed over this small piece of Oxfordshire from the Mesolithic period to the present day.

I would like to thank Dr Petra Dark of Reading University for allowing me to use her research on an ancient woodland site, Sidlings Copse in Oxfordshire. I am also grateful to Dr Heidemarie Halbritter of the University of Vienna and Dr Margaret Collinson/Blackwell Publishing (Pinus sylvestris), who gave me their permission to manipulate their electron micrographs of pollen of the different species of plants which Dr Dark had found at the site. Thank you also to Ordnance Survey for allowing me to reproduce the map. 		 
Susanna Harris Hughes, Mesolithic I – Corylus avellana, Digital print   Susanna Harris Hughes, Mesolithic II – Corylus avellana, Digital print   Susanna Harris Hughes, Mesolithic III - Pinus Sylvestris (pollen image reproduced by kind permission of Margaret Collinson & Blackwell Publishing), Digital print
Susanna Harris Hughes, Bronze/Iron age – Alnus glutinosa<, Digital print   Susanna Harris Hughes, Roman Britain - Plantago lancaeolata, Digital print<br />9.5 x 8.5 cms   Susanna Harris Hughes, Medieval Britain – Quercu, Digital printn
Susanna Harris Hughes, Towards the Second Millenium – Eupatorium cannabinum, Digital print   Susanna Harris Hughes, Sidlings Copse 2002, Digital print, 10 x 9 cms, (Map reproduced by kind permission of Ordnance Survey – Crown copyright)