Masonry variation exhibit at the National Building Museum

		Masonry Variations

		Julie Eizenberg was invited to take part on an exhibition developed by the International Masonry Institute hosted at the National Building Museum. This exhibition, which opened in October 2003, highlighted the contributions of masonry and the masonry craftworker that have together made today’s built environment. Through the designs of an architect, the central thrust of the exhibition was to present fresh structurally/constructionally driven ideas about the use of masonry materials for the future. Below is an excerpt from a text description by Julie. “I started thinking about how to heighten one’s sense of the materiality of terrazzo. A hand-drawn sketch of something that looked like a big bear skin rug evolved - my dreamscape response to the situation. The skin was simply hung on the wall and draped on the floor – no backlighting etc. It would be rugged - made of shards of slate imbedded in cement (or plastic based matrix) that became progressively more imbedded as the rug hit the floor. As it extended horizontally the surface would be ground smooth. It was an exercise that focused on the textural potential of stone and terrazzo.”