The Crypt Gallery invited me into its stillness – a subterranean space of stone, shadow, and breath. Over five days, I worked with found materials gathered through mudlarking along the Thames foreshore and with London clay, developing new installations in response to the gallery’s unique atmosphere.

Mudlarking became a process of listening: tracing the city’s layered histories through fragments washed ashore – shards, worn objects, and natural debris carried by the tide. These materials, heavy with memory, were brought into the crypt and arranged alongside clay forms, creating an interplay between what the river had revealed and what the earth continues to hold.

As I worked, I photographed, wrote, and printed texts in situ, pinning them directly to the gallery walls. These words became part of the installation – a tactile language that unfolded around the space, inviting visitors to pause and encounter the traces of touch, process, and time.

This residency was an excavation of sorts: of materials, gestures, and memory. It was an opportunity to slow down, to listen carefully to the dialogue between body, clay, and place. The Crypt became a holding space for presence, care, and transformation – a quiet collaboration between artist and site.