Pouring out her large-scale art in a flood of emotion

Susan Stockwell doesn't do anything on a small scale.

The artist has earned an international reputation for her large installations made from everyday objects and her latest trademark work has just been unveiled at St Mary's Church in York.

In the middle of the ancient church in the heart of the city centre, visitors are now being stopped in their tracks by a sculpture which spans from floor to ceiling. Beginning from the roof, a pool of metal and wire pours down to the stone floor ending in a mass of dissected computers whose use has been surpassed by new technology.

"I spent a lot of time wandering around the space and thinking how the piece would work best," says Susan. "What interested me was the connection between a deconsecrated church no longer used for the religious purpose it was first built for and our own throwaway society, which makes things obsolete no sooner have they come onto the market.

"It also struck me that at its heart, the church was about communication. Today the idea of spreading a message has taken on a life of its own. The internet means that people from all over the world can connect in an instant and yet despite all those advances some people feel more lonely and isolated than ever."

Susan sourced the four tonnes of old computer parts used in Flood from Secure IT Recycling in Cheshire where they will return when the piece is dismantled in November. Assembling the piece was painstaking, but having seen it just recently installed in its new home, she has allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I wanted the final piece to have an immediate impact, but I also wanted it to have some connection with the architecture which was already there. The red wires link to the colours in the stained glass window and the sheer scale of the piece has, I hope, an ecclesiastical feel.

"Until an installation is finished you never quite know how a work will look, but working with St Mary's has been a really great experience. York is a fabulous city and one steeped in ancient history. The danger is that it ends up feeling like a museum piece in itself and hopefully projects like this, which bring the past and the present together, make people see it in a whole new light."

Flood is the latest work to be added to Stockwell's growing portfolio of work, which has seen her create sculptures from circuit boards, recycled Chinese notes and the paper used to make teabags.

For St Mary's it's also the continuation of a commitment to turn the medieval church over to contemporary artists, which began in 2004.

"Contemporary artists are always braced for the question, 'what is art?' and there are always going to be some people who don't feel a church, albeit one no longer used, is a suitable backdrop for what we do, says Stockwell. "Personally, I think it's a great idea. As an artist working in different spaces is part of the challenge and at the very least I hope it gets people talking."

Flood opens today and the work will be open to visitors until October 31. For more information on St Mary's, Flood and previous installations visit www.yorkstmarys.co.uk

York St Mary's as an art gallery

York St Mary's is a deconsecrated medieval church which opened as a contemporary art venue in 2004. Each year, York Museums Trust commissions an artist to create a site-specific installation in the space.

2004: A Light Crescendo – art illuminating York St Mary's. The exhibition, on the theme of light, featured work by acclaimed contemporary artists including Langlands and Bell, Lawrence Weiner, Gary Webb, Jaume Plensa, Angela Bulloch and David Batchelor.

2005: breathing space, by Caroline Broadhead. A textile artist, Broadhead's installation changed the dimensions of the interior by creating a suspended textile ceiling made of translucent mattress wadding.

2006: Echo, by Susie MacMurray. The materials chosen by Susie for this installation were hairnets and the discarded rosin covered horsehair from violin bows.

2007 and 2008: Memory of Place, by Keiko Mukaide. Mukaide created a space in which to reflect on the memory of loved ones. A pool of water filled the nave of the church, with the water flowing towards the transept of the church, where a suspended column of glass rods was top-lit, suggesting a spiritual path to a higher place. Visitors were invited to light a votive candle and float it on the pool in memory of loved ones.

2009: Five Sisters, by Emma Gibbs and Matthew Collings. Mosaicist Gibbs and her art critic and artist husband Collings created Five Sisters, inspired by the famous window of the same name in York Minster. which is made up of 100,000 pieces of glass. Biggs used 10,000 pieces of broken medieval pottery from York Museums Trust's collection to make the mosaic on the floor of St Mary's.