Boston Bricks

1985 - Boston, MA

A series of 100 bronze reliefs set in the bricks of Winthrop Lane, steps away from Boston’s Freedom Trail marking historical and whimsical parts of Boston’s history. Made with the Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund and Artist Kate Burke

Boston Bricks were installed on either side of a narrow brick paved alleyway in downtown Boston. The project was conceived as a celebration of various aspects of the history of Boston with brick sized bronze relief insets. I tried to celebrate a number of different aspects of that history. Comic: a Boston driver who looked like a gorilla behind the wheel of a car, and a “You Are Here” sign with an arrow to an X. Tragic: The Boston Massacre and the Molasses Explosion. Mysterious: One brick asked the question, “What’s the difference between Cod and Scrod?” another asked the distance to Provincetown by sea. Some were abstract: one featured a closely cropped image of the interior of a smashed umbrella and the listed peak wind velocities in the city’s history. Lastly a few bricks showed in densely packed text, listings of the most popular ethnic surnames in the City - Irish, Italian, German, Jewish etc.