BRICKS Jenai Kavarana

“Creativity requires disconnection(from the expected)in order to make a connection(a discovery)” Tim Parsons, author

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.

You might wonder what a girl like me is doing going around London taking pictures of the floor, of bricks… how absurd. Well let me tell you, IT IS NOT ABSURD, it’s just me taking something we all step all over and transforming it into something beautiful and to some, inspi-rational. I am forcing you to look at something from a different perspective.

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.

You might wonder what a girl like me is doing going around London taking pictures of the floor, of bricks… how absurd. Well let me tell you, IT IS NOT ABSURD, it’s just me taking something we all step all over and transforming it into something beautiful and to some, inspi-rational. I am forcing you to look at something from a different perspective.

Creativity is all about perception, and it is this sensitivity that helps us perceive something differently to what other people would expect. Each brick has a character and all these char-acters make up the streets of London. There’s new bricks, old bricks, big bricks, small bricks and bricks on top of bricks… what I’m trying to say is that it is this layering of the ground, trying so hard to make it even, that is fascinating to me.

Creativity is all about perception, and it is this sensitivity that helps us perceive something differently to what other people would expect. Each brick has a character and all these char-acters make up the streets of London. There’s new bricks, old bricks, big bricks, small bricks and bricks on top of bricks… what I’m trying to say is that it is this layering of the ground, trying so hard to make it even, that is fascinating to me.

The first thing that comes to your mind when I say “Dubai” would probably be something shiny and new, for example the Burj Al Arab or the Burj Khalifa. Dubai is all about persona of hav-ing the biggest, largest, shiniest and newest… the pavements are even with new interlocking tiles, the roads are flat with new tarmac, but there’s a certain charm that is lacking, a certain genuineness… but I guess that all comes with age.

Dig into one of Dubai’s pavements and you will find sand however, dig deep into one of London’s pavements and you will find history, stories, layers of different materials creating a strong foundation for us to walk on. You will find a mixture of materials as the councils cover potholes and try to even the pavements, polish them and make them new again.

The first thing that comes to your mind when I say “Dubai” would probably be something shiny and new, for example the Burj Al Arab or the Burj Khalifa. Dubai is all about persona of hav-ing the biggest, largest, shiniest and newest… the pavements are even with new interlocking tiles, the roads are flat with new tarmac, but there’s a certain charm that is lacking, a certain genuineness… but I guess that all comes with age.

Dig into one of Dubai’s pavements and you will find sand however, dig deep into one of London’s pavements and you will find history, stories, layers of different materials creating a strong foundation for us to walk on. You will find a mixture of materials as the councils cover potholes and try to even the pavements, polish them and make them new again.

Of course, London is full of tourist at-tractions that you ‘must see’. But not my London. My London is different. It’s where I walk, dream and relax. To love London, you have to love bricks. But not just any bricks. Most of London is built from “London Stocks”, a mottled yellow, flinty-hard brick that lasts for hundreds of years. You have to touch brick walls, prayerfully, imagining the hand that laid each brick in place, for twopence an hour, all these years ago. Sometimes, you have to count bricks until you are overwhelmed. You have to wonder how many bricks make London. You have to be grateful, to the men, to their skill, and to the bricks themselves. They are London.

If bricks could talk, what would they say? Bricks have been on London streets since the early 20th century and by 1935 London Bricks produced 1,500 million bricks a year, that’s 1,500,000,000! The bricks would tell us stories of the history of London, how the landmarks were built, the people, how we have changed from generation to generation, the styles etc… and wouldn’t that be a story to hear?

Of course, London is full of tourist at-tractions that you ‘must see’. But not my London. My London is different. It’s where I walk, dream and relax. To love London, you have to love bricks. But not just any bricks. Most of London is built from “London Stocks”, a mottled yellow, flinty-hard brick that lasts for hundreds of years. You have to touch brick walls, prayerfully, imagining the hand that laid each brick in place, for twopence an hour, all these years ago. Sometimes, you have to count bricks until you are overwhelmed. You have to wonder how many bricks make London. You have to be grateful, to the men, to their skill, and to the bricks themselves. They are London.

If bricks could talk, what would they say? Bricks have been on London streets since the early 20th century and by 1935 London Bricks produced 1,500 million bricks a year, that’s 1,500,000,000! The bricks would tell us stories of the history of London, how the landmarks were built, the people, how we have changed from generation to generation, the styles etc… and wouldn’t that be a story to hear?

It is this notion of new vs. old that is so appealing to someone like me who has never experienced something as remark-able as the streets of London. Basically with this archive, I have tried to portray what the streets look like through my eyes by taking photographs of the ground and certain bricks that I find intriguing and editing the photographs so that they are ambiguous and look like works of art rather than, well bricks. Though, the concept of recreating a section of the ground and showing it to an audience in a new light has been done by the Boyle Family, my archive is more personal and impromptu per say. It is merely a collec-tion of the different textures and layers we walk all over. It’s all about the experince of the soles of your feet touching the soul of the street…

The photographs should give the audi-ence (you) a spatial understanding of the size of the various bricks so that you can differentiate between the various types.

It is this notion of new vs. old that is so appealing to someone like me who has never experienced something as remark-able as the streets of London. Basically with this archive, I have tried to portray what the streets look like through my eyes by taking photographs of the ground and certain bricks that I find intriguing and editing the photographs so that they are ambiguous and look like works of art rather than, well bricks. Though, the concept of recreating a section of the ground and showing it to an audience in a new light has been done by the Boyle Family, my archive is more personal and impromptu per say. It is merely a collec-tion of the different textures and layers we walk all over. It’s all about the experince of the soles of your feet touching the soul of the street…

The photographs should give the audi-ence (you) a spatial understanding of the size of the various bricks so that you can differentiate between the various types.

Photos and TextJenai Kavarana

Photos and TextJenai Kavarana

BRICKS Jenai Kavarana