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We talk to artist Julie Brook about her latest project Made, Unmade, a film installation depicting land sculptures she made in remote parts of Libya and Namibia, which is on show at the Wapping Project in London's Bankside until 6 October 2013

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Tell us about made, unmade?

This is a multiple screen installation of films exploring sculptural work I have been making in the deserts in south west and central Libya, and in north west Namibia at the Wapping Project, London. It is a continuous shift and balance between what I make, and what is unmade.

Lot's of your work has focused on remote landscapes. What attracts you to these places?

I love being in places that feel unseen. This enables me a freedom to explore and discover the work unselfconsciously. I value solitude as part of my practice. It is like a honing tool that makes me sharper and more alert to the landscape I am inhabiting.

River Bank 7, Red, but Julie Brook

Do you dislike urban areas?

Not at all. I love being in cities - the architectural spaces, the ambitions and realisation of new architecture and the engineering and scales this involves. I like the energy of cities and the way they are compact. I am fascinated by bridges and what an integral part rivers play in cities.

Tell us about some of your previous projects - have they all involved remote areas?

Yes, primarily in the north west coast of Scotland. Working for a few months on the island of Hoy in Orkney inspired me to settle in Scotland. In the early Nineties I lived and worked on the uninhabited west coast of Jura where I lived in a natural cliff arch. This was one of the most remote places I have worked and informs much of the way I practice today. It was liberating to know I could be entirely self reliant in making the work and the solitude enabled a very close connection to how I was living and how that in turn influenced the work. That is where I began making the sculptural work The Firestacks, which were tidal works and initiated my working with film.

I subsequently went to live and work on the uninhabited island of Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides where I was painting and making sculptural work that influenced public commissions, for example Inversion. I have also made public commissions in city environments that draw on the wild work but adapt to the different parameters of the urban environment, for example Broken Circle at the Hidden gardens, Tramway, Glasgow.

Where do you live these days?

I have a studio in the Isle of Skye.

Why did you choose the Wapping Project as a venue?

I was invited by the curator Jules Wright to show there. Jules had visited my studio in Skye and was particularly drawn to the films of the sculptural work. It is an incredible venue where you feel anything is possible and that is exactly the state I aspire to be in when working.

How do you construct the pieces, and do you have a large team of people helping you?

It depends on where I am. In Scotland I have largely been alone. In Libya and Namibia I have a small team, myself and one or two local guides who help me. The construction is entirely influenced by the material and form I want to make. Sometimes this involves carving away into the sand or earth using pickaxes, mattocks or spades. At others, constructing with stone where I will use the dry stone walling method of building. A wheelbarrow is always an essential part of my tool kit.

Suspended Block by Julie Brook

How much of the work is about the process and how much is about the completed sculpture or film?

The process is an essential and integrated part of the work. In some works the process plays a more important role than in others in the aesthetic exploration of the work, so the answer to this is fluid. I see the films as works in themselves, where they explore the physicality of the form and the singularity of a particular work.

What do you hope that people will take away from the work - is there a particular message you want to get across?

I would like people to feel transported from the street into the work where they have a visceral experience of the forms and materials,where their sense of scale moves about and they lose a sense of time.

What is your next project going to be?

I would like to work on a large scale urban commission. I would also like to go to the Atacama desert in South America once I feel I have completed my work in Namibia.

Made, Unmade is on at the Wapping Project, London, E1W, 4 September-6 October 2013