Sediments

Provenance of the Brick (2025)

Exhibitions:
Artist Lab Exhibition, Signal Film & Media Gallery, Barrow-in-Furness, 28 Nov 2025– 31 Jan 2026
Selected work displayed in foyer for Chris Killip: Askam-in-Furness, Signal Film & Media Gallery, Barrow-in-Furness, 19 Sep–1 Nov 2025
Selected work displayed at East Meets West Exhibition, FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, March 2025

Sediments: Provenance of the Brick traces the production of bricks, a durable and recyclable building material that meets a clear economic need. It highlights the arduous labour and the rich industrial heritage of a 150-year-old Cumbrian brickworks, using an observational approach that foregrounds human presence and place.

The series also reveals the environmental cost of brickmaking, including carbon emissions from coal combustion used to fire the kiln and the physical alteration of the local landscape caused by quarrying shale, the sedimentary rock from which bricks are made. The work reflects on the benefits and drawbacks of industrial production, highlighting the tension between economic necessity and environmental responsibility, which remains one of the defining challenges of our time.

The environmental crisis has its roots in the industrialisation of the economy. During Britain’s Industrial Revolution, bricks became the preferred building material because they were quicker and cheaper to produce than quarried stone. In this historical sense, brick production offers a tangible link between the legacy of industrialisation and contemporary environmental concerns.

Acknowledgements. These photographs were made at Furness Brick and Tile Company Limited, a fourth-generation family business in Askam-in-Furness, Cumbria. I sincerely thank the management for their willingness to engage with an urgent topic and the workers for their generous contributions.