Walking The Dundas Aqueduct I, 2022

Set within Brassknocker Basin, the Dundas Aqueduct, designed by architect John Rennie, was opened in 1805 to carry the Kennett and Avon canal over the River Avon at the Wiltshire / Somerset border. The Wessex Main Line railway runs through it’s western revetment on the Somerset bank of the River Avon. This confluence of three separate eras of transportation shows how the first industrial revolution radically re-shaped the English landscape.

Johnson visited often as a child on family day trips and summer holidays, walking the canal between rain showers. Returning after over 40 years with his own family between the COVID lockdowns of 2020, Johnson drew the Dundas Aqueduct vigorously - again between rain showers - discovering a latent motif that spanned his past and present.

Now deep within the third industrial revolution (or digital revolution), it seems that the English landscape will change rapidly once again with data centres planned to power the AI aspect of the digital revolution. Data centres require vast amounts of water and electricity, so new infrastructure will must be built to divert waterways, just as Rennie did at the turn of the 19th century.