[Image above] Valda Jackson and Rodney Harris’s brick relief sculpture Pinafores. This sculpture, which represents traditional working-class garments, is located at St. John’s Hill Peabody Estate, a social housing project in London. Credit: Jackson and Harris
London may be a cultural capital of the world, but if you take a trip down the River Avon in the country’s southwest, you will find yourself in the Happiest City in the U.K.: Bristol.
Bristol is a historic industrial city. It became one of England’s main port towns in the 14th century, and it expanded into the shipbuilding, soap, sugar, glassware, and pottery industries during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. In modern times, the city is known for its role in the U.K.’s aerospace industry.
The Severn Estuary, upon which Bristol sits, is well known for its high-quality brickmaking clay. In addition to the familiar red, it is also possible to find buff, blue, and yellow clay in the area. This diversity of clays led to the development of a particular architectural style known as Bristol Byzantine, in which the colored bricks are used to create intricate patterns on building façades.
The area’s history and unique clay deposits made Bristol the perfect setting for Valda Jackson and Rodney Harris to meet as art school students in the 1980s. They have since built a career around creating public art that is deeply embedded in both the architecture and the community in which it is placed.
It should not be a surprise that these two artists—whom I interviewed on Aug. 16, 2025—use brick as their chosen medium. This material allows them to challenge the traditional hierarchy of art materials while accurately depicting England’s social, economic, and environmental history.
The process: Sculpting with earth
Jackson and Harris use specially sculpted bricks to create bas-relief sculptures, i.e., three-dimensional art pieces made from sculpted elements projecting from a flat, 2D background.
To create the relief bricks, Jackson and Harris begin by sculpting each brick while the clay is still in its raw, plastic state. These bricks are intentionally made deeper than standard ones to ensure the final relief sculpture does not compromise the structural integrity of the wall. Once sculpted, the relief bricks are fired in a massive industrial kiln along with the other bricks destined for the building, making them an organic part of the final structure.
The duo’s ability to work on a monumental scale is made possible through their relationship with the Cattybrook Brick Works, which has been making bricks in Bristol since 1864. This fruitful collaboration benefits both the artists and the brick works.
The on-site bricklaying is closely overseen, with Harris numbering each sculpted piece to guide the bricklayers. The artists often collaborate with the architects as the building is designed, ensuring their work is integral to its surroundings. This careful attention to detail means the entire process from ideation to unveiling can take two or more years.
Although most of their work is permanently installed on buildings, Jackson and Harris also create standalone sculptures. The brick pieces for these sculptures are typically built in a studio using a polymer mortar that allows for slight movement and enhanced adhesion, giving the sculpture time to cure and harden before installation.
The art of representation: Finding inspiration
Jackson and Harris say their art is rooted in a desire to give a voice to the marginalized and overlooked. They feel strongly that their public art should represent the working people integral to England’s history.
One of their largest projects is located at St. John’s Hill Peabody Estate, a social housing project in London originally built in the 1930s by U.S. philanthropist George Peabody. Tearing down and rebuilding the blocks created the opportunity for new public art.
Jackson and Harris chose subjects that would respect the estate’s past, and their sculpture Pinafores (see image at the top of this article) represents traditional working-class garments that reflect the history of the community. Similarly, Uniform, also located on the estate, was created to honor a block supervisor, celebrating the life of an everyday individual.
These sculptures are also great examples of how Jackson and Harris strive to imbue each piece with an emotional quality so that people will “fall in love with the finished product.” Specifically, Jackson’s uncanny ability to sculpt subtle wrinkles or deformations in the suggested fabric evokes a human inhabitant in the article of clothing.
This talent of drawing life out of inanimate objects is eloquently summarized by writer Lizzie Lloyd in her review of their tree-themed work, Espalier, “Jackson and Harris imagine trees as providers of more than oxygen, and play as more than a frivolous distraction, and bricks as more than raw components of walls, and walls as more than devices to divide, enclose, or restrict movement.”
A material’s meaning: Why brick?
The duo says their choice of brick is a deliberate act that helps them achieve their stated goals for creating art in a couple ways:
- First, because bricks are made to fit within a human hand, they call to mind the artisan who produced the object—thus representing the human labor that went into their creation.
- Additionally, the use of brick as a building material can be traced back to ancient civilizations such as the Assyrians. By using bricks as their chosen medium, it allows Jackson and Harris to engage in a modern interpretation of a timeless tradition.
The material’s history can also add to its narrative. For example, bricks were commonly used as ship ballast and dumped at the destination in favor of the more valuable cargo the ships would carry back to England. At a restaurant in Istanbul, Harris discovered a wall made of English bricks, which he says were immediately recognizable by their characteristic red color.
Building on that sentiment, Jackson and Harris say the choice of a local material for their art gives it a stronger sense of place. Each piece of public art that they create requires approval by consensus of numerous voices in the community, from architects to residents. By using bricks made from local clay, it helps the community members feel more connected to the artwork and the story that it tells.
Ultimately, Valda Jackson and Rodney Harris are more than just artists—their craft helps build lasting connections, brick by brick, between the community, the materials, and the final artwork.
