Thrown Brick #2, Ceramic and found wood object
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Gripped Bricks & Thrown Bricks on Shelving Unit
naked raku fired ceramic stoneware, repurposed found wood on pallet |
Gripped Bricks
Naked Raku Fired Ceramic Stoneware
Gripped Bricks, where I extrude clay to create utility bricks used for protest. All the bricks are cut to the size of my hand. Then held. While holding the soft clay I slowly grip the brick harder as I think about the world I live in right now. All the resistance groups fighting back against oppressors to extend human rights to all. How the utility of bricks is for building structures and communities…. then I throw the brick.
The brick is a debated symbol of resistance and resilience, but in the trans community it's seen especially because of queer peoples’ fight against police discrimination like in the Stonewall Riot of 1969 when a trans woman threw a brick at police, allegedly. While looking up all kinds of references to bricks I discovered some common and city phrases that currently resonate with my identity as a trans individual. “When something has been rendered useless”, or “when being under an extreme state of distress”, and “to be afraid”. These are just a few definitions that connect being bricked to being trans in America in 2025, to being seen and perceived as a threat, to completely failing at gender, to being hit over the head, to being dysfunctional.
These completed utility bricks are my personal take on these debated riot bricks and my relationship within the trans community. I created a self-portrait to be used as a functional object and as a form of protest. These bricks were forced through an extruder, to be created uniformly and compliantly. They are then cut to the size of my hand and gripped tightly. They fit in my hand and are easily held, they are lightweight and shatter upon impact, they are sturdy but fragile and they are cost efficient as utility bricks. But they too are rendered useless. These bricks cannot be stacked or used to build walls, but they can be used to construct, build tensions and rebuild communities. My extra built up emotion – captured in the squeezed ceramic utility bricks– is what is truly rendering these bricks as useless to construct physical structures, but perfect for revolution.
These ceramic bricks act as vessels that hold resentment, stress, grief and anger, but have the possibility to start the right conversations needed to rebuild and heal. These self portraits are to remind us of the people before us who too have lifted a brick in defiance and spoken out. My hand imprint is a visual metaphor for picking up those past thrown bricks, getting ready to once again stand up for discrimination and injustice.
Free Palestine, Free the Congo, Free Sudan, No war in Iran, Free Ukrane, Fuck zionist Isreal. Fuck Fascists. Fuck Trump. Fuck ICE. Fuck the police. Fuck Capitalism. Black Lives Matter. Trans Rights are Human Rights. No one is free until we're all free.
The brick is a debated symbol of resistance and resilience, but in the trans community it's seen especially because of queer peoples’ fight against police discrimination like in the Stonewall Riot of 1969 when a trans woman threw a brick at police, allegedly. While looking up all kinds of references to bricks I discovered some common and city phrases that currently resonate with my identity as a trans individual. “When something has been rendered useless”, or “when being under an extreme state of distress”, and “to be afraid”. These are just a few definitions that connect being bricked to being trans in America in 2025, to being seen and perceived as a threat, to completely failing at gender, to being hit over the head, to being dysfunctional.
These completed utility bricks are my personal take on these debated riot bricks and my relationship within the trans community. I created a self-portrait to be used as a functional object and as a form of protest. These bricks were forced through an extruder, to be created uniformly and compliantly. They are then cut to the size of my hand and gripped tightly. They fit in my hand and are easily held, they are lightweight and shatter upon impact, they are sturdy but fragile and they are cost efficient as utility bricks. But they too are rendered useless. These bricks cannot be stacked or used to build walls, but they can be used to construct, build tensions and rebuild communities. My extra built up emotion – captured in the squeezed ceramic utility bricks– is what is truly rendering these bricks as useless to construct physical structures, but perfect for revolution.
These ceramic bricks act as vessels that hold resentment, stress, grief and anger, but have the possibility to start the right conversations needed to rebuild and heal. These self portraits are to remind us of the people before us who too have lifted a brick in defiance and spoken out. My hand imprint is a visual metaphor for picking up those past thrown bricks, getting ready to once again stand up for discrimination and injustice.
Free Palestine, Free the Congo, Free Sudan, No war in Iran, Free Ukrane, Fuck zionist Isreal. Fuck Fascists. Fuck Trump. Fuck ICE. Fuck the police. Fuck Capitalism. Black Lives Matter. Trans Rights are Human Rights. No one is free until we're all free.