'Ersatz Landen' — Reclaimed Land and the Painted Surface

The title of this painting combines the German word 'ersatz' — meaning substitute or replacement — with the Dutch word 'landen', meaning to land or to arrive. Together, they refer to the Fenland landscape itself: a substitute land, a replacement for the water that once covered it, a terrain that has been made rather than found. The Fens are, in this sense, an artificial landscape — one that exists only because of centuries of human effort to hold back the water.

Reclaimed Land

The reclamation of the Fenlands is one of the great engineering achievements of British history. Beginning in earnest in the seventeenth century, the draining of the Fens transformed a vast expanse of water and marsh into some of the most productive agricultural land in England. The process involved the construction of hundreds of miles of dykes and drains, the installation of pumping stations, and the constant maintenance of a system that is always under pressure from the water it holds back.

The landscape that resulted is, in a very real sense, a painted surface: a flat, worked terrain that carries the evidence of its own making in every aspect of its form. The straight lines of the drains, the geometric divisions of the fields, the raised embankments that define the horizon — all of these are marks made by human hands on the surface of the earth.

The Painting

'Ersatz Landen' was made in oil and cold wax on canvas, with a surface that attempts to hold something of the Fenland's particular quality — its flatness, its exposure, its sense of being a made thing rather than a natural one. The palette is earthy and restrained, drawing on the colours of the Fenland soil and sky, and the composition is horizontal, reflecting the flatness of the terrain.