Emma Edmondson @ Focal Point

On the deeds of many houses in Southchurch there is a covenant stating; residents are not allowed to make bricks or tiles from the clay underneath their feet, a seam nestled in the soil they walk on daily. Emma Edmondson will be exploring the untold history of local brickfields to create a permanent artwork formed of the clay of Southchurch.  Made from this Land sets out to change residents’ covenants, so that bricks, tiles, or the like, can be produced from their land.

As a local resident, Edmondson became interested in these far-removed systems and rules and through this commission wants to start a conversation about agency, land ownership and our connections as humans to the land we live on. Collaboration, rather than extraction, is key and artworks made will find permanent sites in both residents’ houses and as part of the public artwork.