Many thousands of the starlings I recorded at Ham Wall nature reserve in Somerset will have arrived as migrants from Russia, Ukraine and Scandinavia.

They have crossed borders freely, although their routes will have also posed considerable dangers as it does for human migrants.

Upon arrival in this country they are welcomed and celebrated, many people travelling to roosting sites to watch their stunning murmuration displays.

In contrast, migrants to this country may be shunned and ignored, or their arrival greeted with graffiti such as that used in this work, where they can be told “Aliens out” or to “Speak English”.

“Insider, Outsider” explores this conflict of attitudes by placing the audience within a wooden bird hide in the Somerset levels, a huge area of peat diggings where hundreds of thousands of starlings roost, where they experience the soundscape of birdsong, waterbirds and the clanking of the wind turbine accompanied by music composed and played in the studio by myself.

The wooden structure can accommodate four people, built just as found all over our country, but it has been graffitied with these anti-migrant slogans which are exact copies of real graffiti found in this country, so that as you approach it looks threatening and disturbing.

Lights come on with the music as you enter the space, which contains a long bench so that it is comfortable and inviting inside.

This piece was exhibited at the Bargehouse gallery on the OXO tower wharf in London in December 2023. Spread over four floors the Bargehouse is known for showing exciting and imaginative works in an atmospheric and unusual former warehouse.

I was allocated a huge space with windows looking out at both the London Eye and the Thames. As it was up four flights of stairs the piece was built in twelve separate sections and assembled on site.

The reaction of visitors was very helpful to planning the development of future work. There were a broad range of responses, some found it brought up thoughts about their own families’ migration while others found it relaxing and meditative. One lady was reduced to tears as she recounted to me and my partner, the artist Sally Stafford, how her father’s story was reflected in the work; one man was using it as a meditation space, listening right through all three movements of music and birdsong; gladly I also had a lady who I passed on the stairs saying “I’m not going past that bloody shed again”!

The work aims to speak loudly and in reply I certainly don’t expect just positivity.