Sir Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ at Crosby Beach inspires me.

I’ve often sat for hours as the tide came in and the sun rose on a new dawn ...enjoying silent moments, considering, reflecting and hopeful.

Gormley’s work exists in front of us even when it is little more than a perception of where it may be, always a constant, often unseen. I find this experience offers more questions than answers.

In response to Sir Antony’s 100 figures I collected 100 razor clam shells that shared the same beach, and which are almost always ignored other than by birds and of course children.

I wished to create the shells into a form less fragile, less recognisable, and so chose to grind the 100 shells into minuscule pieces that eventually became a singular solid form symbolising greater unity, an army of one.

When the tide is out, we are witness to Gormley’s self-modelled cast steel figures. These are ultimately only shells, representative of his thoughts and considerations, an extension of his hopes.

Gormley’s 100 figures, though dispersed are therefore in essence a grouping of one mind.

The clam shells rarely allow us to see the content of their protective coat and indeed disappear deeper when the tide retracts and exposes them, secure in yet another world, a place we cannot comprehend.

Presented in a case of clear acrylic this singular block of 100 shells, whilst remaining, visible is unrecognisable, still beyond our touch, an outer shell within a man-made shell, empty yet always present.