a now derelict, once fortified defense tower situated in the estuary of the river medway off the east coast of England, becoming accessible only at low tide.
the tower of grain is a study in contradictory impressions: seeming simultaneously formidable and indestructible from afar and yet quite tenuously hanging on against the forces of nature when experienced close up; feeling alternatively creepily errie - as a hideaway for ghosts of the past - and captivatingly fascinating because of that. the slow flow of the tide in and out changes the perception of the tower from one encapsulated entirely by the waters and removed from the shore to one bounded by mud flats and connected to the land. just inland, the enormous stack of a coal power plant defines the space in between it and the tower, two vertical objects in a horizontal landscape - when you are moving along the path to the tower and then within the tower, the stack is always visible as a marker in the distance.
the journey to the location involved, first, a train ride out of london and, second, a lengthy cycle ride over and down some well sized hills through periods of sunshine then sudden periods of torrential downpours. on location a variety of impressionable materials were added to accentuate other aspects of the environment which surround the tower: of forms and sounds which the wind makes as it blows throughout the structure, and of the places that the water leaves uncovered as it recedes from around the base, both forces acting on the tower to slowly deconstruct it, grain by grain.
