Fire sale Britain: Mike Nelson on why he turned the Tate into a big salvage yard

The artist scoured asset-stripping websites for the things British companies toss out as they close. He relives his six-month journey into a country in decline

Mike Nelson is feeling his age. He's halfway through installing his new work, in the soaring Duveen galleries of Tate Britain, and as we sit down to chat, I notice the support strapped to his arm. The artist gives me a quick run-through of all the dislocations, injuries and strains that decades of vigorous construction work, all in the name of art, have exacted on his arms and shoulders. "I'm starting to feel long in the tooth," he mutters apologetically.

It all feels apt, given the work he's installing. Redundancy, decrepitude and physical labour are central themes of The Asset Strippers. In preparation, over the last six months, he has amassed an array of industrial equipment from British manufacturers downsizing, closing or moving out of the country. Shelved, archived, stacked, clustered and sitting on reinforced flooring, this collection of machines large and small recasts the London gallery as a storage facility for the detritus of British industry.

Related: A modern masterpiece: Mike Nelson's The Coral Reef | Jonathan Jones

In the 20th century, sculptures started to look like machines - and machines started to look like sculptures