Story: Post-object and conceptual art

'Bricks in aspic'

'Bricks in aspic'

'Bricks in aspic' is a post-object artwork by British-born artist Adrian Hall. It was remade for the 2012 exhibition Peripheral Relations: Marcel Duchamp and New Zealand Art 1960–2011, held at the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington. A visiting lecturer at Elam School of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1972, Hall was instrumental in introducing post-object art to New Zealand. 'Bricks in aspic' was first realised for Hall's famous 1971 show, The Plasma Cast Iron Foam Company Presents Adrian Reginald Hall. Two stacks of bricks are suspended in resin, with spaces between the bricks where the cement might have been. Hall tries to create 'objects that are not objects', as he says, taking familiar building materials from their normal context and rendering them useless. In this way his work references that of radical French artist Marcel Duchamp, who deprived ordinary objects of their everyday function by declaring them artworks.

Using this item

Auckland Art Gallery – Toi o Tāmaki
Reference: 2013/22/1
Artwork by Adrian Hall, 1971/2012

Permission of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Photograph courtesy of Adam Art Gallery

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How to cite this page:

Christina Barton, 'Post-object and conceptual art - What is post-object art?', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/object/43822/bricks-in-aspic (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Christina Barton, published 22 Oct 2014