Brian Kavanagh
Reflections on 'Another Place'
No amount of baking, yoga, guitar playing, movie watching, zoom meetings or reading and writing can account for the mental stress we have all, to a greater or lesser extent, experienced in this period of uncertainty. So, having cocooned away in our home in London for over 100 days, my partner and I decided to break out of our bubble and drive to the sea. Brighton and Margate seemed obvious options, but we worried that social distancing might be difficult to achieve at these popular resorts. After much debate, we decided to be a little more adventurous and so jumped in our car and drove to Crosby Beach in Liverpool, which is 4.0 km in length, a perfect location to fill the lungs with fresh sea air while adhering to social distancing. Crosby Beach also boasts one of my favourite public art installations – Another Place by Anthony Gormley, which comprises 100 cast iron figures facing out to sea.
Another Place invokes thoughts of emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, a theme closely associated with the city of Liverpool. It also invites us to reflect on our relationship with time and space, something many of us are doing at this time as we contemplate our relationship with nature, ourselves, and the outside world more generally, the space within and without.