Ghost Bricks, Dust Footer

dust and wheat paste, bricks and mortar

each dust brick: 21(h) x 13(w) x 8.5(d)”,

Installation Dimensions: variable

This piece suggests a likeness between the smallest visible particle form (dust) and the brick form, a primary building block in the constructed world.  The piece, however, also forms an opposite analogy; by relating the formless and ephemeral nature of the dust to the broken and aged stack of bricks, the piece intimates the fragility and play of entropy on a form that usually represents foundational stability.  To make it, I periodically collected the dust and debris that accumulated on the floors of an 85-year-old house as its owner literally dismantled it piece by piece.  Later, in my studio, I molded the dust into bricks and stacked them to mimic the form of one of the brick "footers" that had supported a removed portion of the house.  These two footers, which can be seen in the front center of the exhibition, explore the cyclical and constant processes of material breakdown and re-accumulation of form in the physical world, a key theme of the exhibition.