The work took six weeks to install

The work, Triple Bluff Canyon by Turner prize nominated artist Mike Nelson, is on show at Modern Art Oxford.

It took the artist and 11 assistants almost six weeks to install the work, which features full-sized buildings partially submerged in a sand mountain.

The installation is so large and complex it will not be exhibited anywhere other than the Oxford gallery.

Real or imagined

"I think it's probably up there as one of the 50 most crazy things to happen in an art gallery," said Rachel Tompkins of Modern Art Oxford.

"As far as our 40 year history is concerned it is probably the most amazing and most dramatic visually."

It is Mike Nelson's first exhibition since he was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001.

He is known for his large-scale sculptures and installations of several of interconnecting rooms designed to suggest real or imagined places.