TEMPLE OF THE ORIGINAL, 2018 - 2019Temple to the Original (I) is a tribute to a brick recovered from the remains of a demolished Houston bridge. Other bricks salvaged from the old bridge, still in good shape, have continued their working lives; they have been reincorporated into the walkways of Sawyer Yards. This brick, however, is disfigured, dysfunctional, and is therefore regarded now as no more than vestigial debris, to be buried or otherwise forgotten about.
This brick was once regular. Cast from a master copy, on the surface it was the same as the rest, but was inherently different in its composition and ultimately it’s “life” experience. It was born of a single purpose: to be built with in tandem with other regular bricks, a function it can presumably no longer perform. Temple to the Original (I) treats this misshapen old brick as venerable rather than disposable, using it as a master copy for production of a new generation made in it’s own image. The resulting construction is an ode to the simultaneously ubiquitous and individual: the brick can be an analogy for architectural, human, and natural legacy, as well as ephemerality.
Slideshow: Hand press-molded adobe bricks, and one salvaged fired brick. On view at Sawyer Yards Art Alley, in Houston, Texas from 2018 - 2019. The bricks were filled with seeds of native grasses. Over the months the “temple” or “altar” decayed and grass eventually grew. The “temple” was ultimately closed for repair, and re-opened as an archaeological ruin, until finally closing in September of 2019. A ceremony (See “Vigil” video) was conducted to remove the found brick from the ruin and return to the palette of bricks from whence it came.
