The town of Malvern in Worcestershire, England, grew dramatically in Victorian times due to the natural mineral water springs in the locality. A 1757 analysis by Dr. John Wall stated “the Malvern waters… are famed for containing nothing at all”.

 

Since 1622, the spring water has been collected and used by locals and visitors alike for the alleged healing properties it has been seen to possess. During the Victorian era, Dr. James Wilson and Dr. James Gulley set up ‘Water Cure’ establishments in the centre of Malvern town that offered hydropathy treatments. After visiting in 1850, Charles Dickens wrote “it is a most beautiful place. Oh heavenly to meet the cold waters as I did this morning when I went out for a shower bath”.

 

Precambrian granite and limestone form the Malvern Hills; the density of which acts as a natural purifier, stripping away minerals and other impurities. The rocks are characterised by low porosity and high secondary permeability through fissures. When the fissures are saturated, a water table forms, and the water emerges as springs around the fault lines between the strata. The water permeates through the rock which, because of its hardiness, leaves little or no mineral traces in the water, while fine cracks act as a filter for other impurities.

Due to the famed process of filtration that occurs out of sight in the geological environment, Famed For Containing Nothing At All adapts a visual narrative that navigates the invisibility of the water and constructs visual connotations that allude to the presence of water in the landscape without overtly presenting the water itself. Landscapes paint the coddled rock formations as part of the scenery. Details of the spring equinox are elaborated in gifts that celebrate the natural resource, placed as offerings to the earth. Finally, home experiments connote the filtration process alluding to acts of pressure and moving bodies of water which construct a visualisation of the natural phenomenon.