Session 12; Making a brick

Researching art and bricks;

We found an artist who had made an art work with brick. The work was bought by Tate and this was very controversial.
People at first did not understand how bricks could be art. We asked the same question when we saw the picture of a brick in the Hansard Gallery, but then we discussed it and discovered there were a lot of meanings that we could find in the brick.

This is the work by Carl Andre, bought by Tate in 1966.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/andre-equivalent-viii-t01534

In a video , Carl Andre explains that works of 'art don't mean anything'.

We watched the video and discussed this.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/carl-andre-648/carl-andre-works-art-dont-mean-anything

We also found some local history of brick making.
The Michelmersh brick factory near Romsey, gave us technical advice for our project.

J's mum used to be brick layer.
She knows all about bricks!

https://www.mbhplc.co.uk/media

The Romsey Reclamation ltd also gave us a good overview

http://www.romseyreclamation.com/history%20of%20bricks.htm

Anyway, after all this thinking and researching, the only thing we hadn't done was to actually make a brick.

Making a Brick

Laurence got us some clay called Terracotta Crank, from a local clay pit that runs right pass Romsey and through the new forest.

We mixed it with some water to make it like a sticky paste and then with sand from Brickworth sand quarry (between Salisbury and Romsey).

The sand made the clay like a dough and we had to through it in the mould designed by Laurence and Andy from Far Fences, Salisbury.

The mould was like a wooden box with a shape in the middle called a frog, to create a groove in the brick.

Then we had to tap the mould on the floor to get rid of the air in the clay.

Then we turned it upside down and pushed the clay out through two holes at the back

We pressed letters into the clay to mark our project name and our poems and thoughts

The bricks are laid on a piece of newspaper on a board where they will dry for two weeks before firing in a kiln . This will be done at Godolphin school, Salisbury