Tamryn McDermott

This series began during my residency at the Craft Alliance during the summer of 2015 and is constructed of recovered architectural fragments from a parking lot in St. Louis. St. Louis has a history with a thriving brick industry. Evidence of the scale of the brick industry there is visible on just about every block. Today the scale of new brick fabrication is nothing like it once was in the city. However, a new industry is thriving in its place. New found appreciation for and heightened value of brick, illegally reclaimed from abandoned homes and buildings around town, is a growing problem. Brick fragments litter the city and are as common as grass growing between sidewalk pavers. Reclaiming broken, unrelated pieces and binding them together forms new relationships and implies new purposes, addressing a past and present where the value of common building materials can redefine a city.