Dust is everywhere, it is part of us and the smallest of visible particles. Laid to Rest by Serena Korda transformed dust collected from houses, businesses and institutions into 500 commemorative bricks.
Inspired by the commercialisation of waste in Victorian London, from the dust heaps of Gray's Inn Rd to the engineering achievements of Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage system, the dust heaps were monuments to the invisible and provided a major source of income. One of the industries to be born out of the heaps was London brick making: ash, cinders and rubbish from the heaps were mixed with the mud of nearby brick fields to produce the humble brick.
To create the bricks, Serena Korda invited a broad range of people (including local residents, office workers, and even the royal family) to donate a sample of dust to the project, labelled with the location, date and significance of the dust. Each brick contained specific dust from the contributing household, business or institution and was imprinted with information cataloguing its transformation from the barely visible to the palpable. A growing stack of bricks was exhibited as part of Dirt the Filthy Reality of Every Day exhibition at the Wellcome Collection alongside a film made at Joseph Bazalgette's Crossness Pumping Station. Whilst on display, a series of events celebrated and ritualized the stack.
The project culminated in a horse drawn procession of the bricks through the streets of London and a ceremonial burial of bricks, returning them to the earth from where they came. A plaque commemorating the bricks is permanently on display in Brunswick Square Gardens.
Laid to Rest was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust in association with UP Projects, as part of the Wellcome Trust's DIRT season.
