We live as we dream, alone.

That's what Joseph Conrad said. The phrase was later turned into a song by the Gang of Four.

I always think of it when I see Antony Gormley's 'Another Place' on the beach at Crosby.

The piece consists of 100 cast-iron figures (cast from Gormley's own body) placed along 3km of beach and stretching almost 1km out to sea. Gormley uses the tidal ebb and flow over the sculptures to explore our relationship with nature. He says "The seaside is a good place to do this. Here time is tested by tide, architecture by the elements and the prevalence of sky seems to question the earth's substance. In this work human life is tested against planetary time. This sculpture exposes to light and time the nakedness of a particular and peculiar body. It is no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufactured things around the planet."

Over the last 5 years or so the figures have been battered by the elements but they remain a solid presence looking out to sea.

I was over in Crosby for a meeting today so I took the opportunity for a brief detour to the beach before catching the train back to town.

As I looked at the 100 figures, so close to each other but each in its own world, I found myself thinking of a recent, brilliant, blip by Yossarian.