These photographs were taken in the dunes of Aberlady Beach which lies to the east of Edinburgh. Here lie the remnants of a massive WWII defence initiative to deter German tanks from swarming across this sleepy coastal village. Lines of anti-tank concrete cubes have survived and now form a distinctive feature of this nature reserve.

Although the warm glow of sunset appears to ‘soften’ these lumpen concrete blocks but it is an illusion, they remain coarse against the body’s skin. Time has not eroded their appearance, in contrast to the human body – here we see the contrast between two bodies; one young, one older. The pose the models adopt is copied from a celebrated photograph by Whilem von Gloeden showing a lonely boy on a rock.


The video shows a male figure jumping from one anti-tank cube to another one. The concrete blocks are useless today but have been assimilated into the wild landscape. They have been largely forgotten but still evoke memories of WWII. The video highlights these inanimate objects set against nature with a naked body springing from block to block acting as the antithesis of the earth-bound cubes.