Installation; brick, text, digital print, cyanotype, sound, 2022.

This project takes as its starting point the remnants of a brick wall that I came across when walking along the beach a few days after a bad storm. Over several months I have seen how the wall has gradually been broken up by the force of the waves and tides, and the individual bricks dispersed along the beach. Slowly, the bricks have been worn down by the sea, losing their identifiable shape and transformed into smaller, rounded, organic forms. It is a gradual process. In time, the clay used to make the bricks escapes this man-made structure, its particles released into the water and sand as it becomes part of the natural environment once more.

As I have followed the journey of this wall, I have considered our relationship to the natural environment. Living on the coast, on a clifftop, I am witness to the force of nature on a daily basis. Just a bit further down the coast is one of the areas in the UK that suffers most from coastal erosion, with towns literally falling into the sea. As I begin to research on what is being done about this and the effects of rising sea levels to this area and the whole of the country, I am struck by two words that are repeated in every report I come across. Adaptation and resilience.

This project reflects on our reaction to change and the relevance of these two words to any situation of change, be it global or on a personal level. The piece works with different dualities, including land and sea, interior and exterior, natural and human-made, digital and analogue, bringing them together in an exploration of how everything is ultimately interconnected. 

This piece was exhibited at the Malton Sculpture Trail in June 2022 where it was installed in the old Conservative Party Club building (top right picture).