Strand is an artwork commissioned by University College London Hospitals for permanent display in the new UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre on Huntley Street, London WC1E 6AG. At some point in life, cancer will touch most of us—either directly or through someone we know. It remains one of our greatest shared fears.

Confronting cancer is both a mental and physical journey, one that thrusts the diagnosed into unfamiliar territory. For this reason, the conceptual starting point for the sculpture was a personal journey of both mind and body. My artistic practice often centres on collections of found objects that collectively tell a story. For this commission, I undertook a 450-mile coastal walk, beginning where the River Thames meets the North Sea at Gravesend and ending at the furthest southwestern point of England, Land’s End. Along the shoreline I gathered man-made objects washed ashore—fragments of everyday life cast into the sea and returned by the tide. I chose the coast because, historically, the sea has been perceived as a vast unknown, a metaphor aligning closely with the emotional landscape of a cancer diagnosis.

The journey itself became an intrinsic component of the project, both physically and metaphorically. Walking alone, day after day, sourcing objects that would ultimately form the artwork marked a new methodology for me, pushing my practice into unfamiliar territory. The challenges—and moments of quiet reflection—along the route transformed the process into something deeply personal. This physical passage and the shifting landscapes I traversed became a subtle, almost invisible subtext woven into the final work.

Once collected, the objects were meticulously categorised by colour, forming a spectrum that transitions from white through yellow, orange, and red, eventually reaching black. I imagine that receiving a cancer diagnosis unleashes a sudden explosion of emotion—confusion, fear, disorientation—yet also resilience, clarity, and determination. These emotional contrasts became central to the sculpture’s visual language.

From the collected materials, I created a suspended, frozen “explosion” of colour and form. Each object is precisely positioned, radiating outward from a white core that gradually deepens in colour until the outermost pieces reach black. Although the composition suggests a moment of dramatic expansion, the precise placement of each element introduces a sense of calm, balance, and control. The objects hang from a platform on fine metal cables, giving the impression that the explosion has been captured mid-air, frozen in time.

The resulting work—a vibrant, structured burst of colour—stands in harmonious contrast to the clean, neutral tones of the hospital interior. It serves as both a visual anchor and a quiet reminder of the journeys, both challenging and transformative, that patients undertake within the building.