a site specific installation for the Crypt Gallery, Seaford ...an aquarium of shifting, clinging light… I collaborated with writer Sally Staples in this contemplation of a secret location that we found in the midst of the decaying industrial landscape of wharves, breakwaters, fortifications and sea-walls at Newhaven Harbour. Solid words and objects merged into their reflections. On an early visit to the Crypt I was attracted by the qualities of age and decay exhibited by the ancient stonework, and its potential as a setting for sculpture or installation. When I was offered a show there I had already discovered that Sally shared my fascination for the decaying industrial landscapes around the coast and I invited her to collaborate with me on a project. Neither of us had worked with an artist from a different discipline before and we had to make the process up as we went along. We soon realised that whilst we wanted the work to have a relationship with the space, we did not want the installation to be about the Crypt itself; we needed a specific place, preferably near at hand, to supply a context for the work. …there we found a staircase leading down below the quay into the sea, a space both confined and secretive, echoing the well-worn stone steps which lead to the Crypt’s original undercroft… On a lucky day’s exploring we discovered our special place at Newhaven, and from this the work readily emerged. The specific location remains our secret. With this clear starting point I began to design and Sally started to write. As we worked we shared ideas, explored possibilities and found mutually agreeable ways forward. Once the poem was completed we considered the many means by which we could present the words physically in the gallery. Rather than use the fully resolved poem we selected short extracts which had been the first words around which Sally had started to form her composition. The theme was the place at which land and water meet. Liquid and solid worlds found their parallels in the intersection of words and physical objects, of reflections and solid masonry. Words hovered on the gallery walls and were washed up on the ancient stonework. Broken, encrusted castings, like reconstructed archaeological finds, penetrated the walls and floor, their concentric forms analogous to the ripples that appear on water when the surface is disturbed. The Crypt Gallery is built around the vaulted stone crypt of a medieval house. The installation exploited the special qualities of the Crypt itself, where the ancient surfaces and subdued lighting created an unusual and challenging space for three dimensional work. In 2005 we had the opportunity to adapt Standing by Water for Lankester's Vault, Southampton, as part of Artvaults 2005.