Interested recently by the study of Sal, an island in Cape Verde named for its salt deposits, George Levantis has devoted much of his time explor­ing salt as material for his work. In the 1970s, Levantis had already used acrylic paint mixed with salt water in his work during his long sea journeys with the Ocean Fleet shipping company. Initially Levantis became involved with the Artist Placement Group – APG after his tutor Stuart Brisley introduced him to them.

Out of his collaboration with Ocean Fleets (three voyages: Japan, Africa, South-East Asia, 1974–1975), Levantis made the installation Pieces of Sea Fall through the Stars in 1976. The installation is a kind of response to the environment that Levantis encountered on the open sea with the heightened sig­nificance of the cycle of day and night put together as a three-dimensional tactile diagram. Shown only a few times, it represents the boat’s confined space as a space of isolation. The artist still conserves the bamboo rods he originally used, bought in Kyoto and stored in a sailor’s trunk. For the 9th Bienal, Levantis carried out a complete reconstruction of the piece with original materials and others he collected in Brazil.