De/Constructing Bricks
Sculptural Forms, made at crafthub.eu Maker Exchange Residency, Montemoro-Novo, Portugal. April 2022.
The aim of this residency was to develop personal knowledge for craft makers by focusing on ceramic materials and practice utilising traditional Portuguese clay building materials. This collection of sculptures was constructed onsite in a traditional brick and tile factory in southern Portugal.
Through an exploration of the brick as a functional object and how such objects could be reformed into sculptural works through minimal intervention in terms of form and finish, a new work was produced.
The bricks were initially carved and divided with basic tools with the resulting parts joined to create new sculptural objects: one became a hollow, hexagonal, linear form; the other a vertical composite work. These new objects stayed true to their original purpose through material state, but through this manipulation lost their functionality to become uniquely sculptural objects.
Finally, a single brick was burnished all over giving it a smooth, glossy appearance. Itremained a brick in terms of form, shape, and size, but the change in surface quality meant it became a tactile art object with ambiguous function.
Check out my info on the practitioners’ page on the extensive crathub.eu website:
https://www.crafthub.eu/practitioner/mary-conroy/
Check out a short video of our residency from Espiga Studio