In 2024, Tinworks continued its program of hosting artists on site to conduct research and develop new work. Wills Brewer hand-built ceramic vessels with forms based on earth-building techniques and traditional brick-making the artist learned in the U.S. and Europe. Often made of wild clay, the works were also inspired by Agnes Martin’s repetitive, meditative mark-making and her own forays into earthen construction at her home and studio in New Mexico. Brewer explored the possibility of constructing, firing, and inhabiting a large-scale clay dwelling on the Tinworks site. Works on view:

A Repetition of Histories, 2024 Sand, clay, straw, brick, stone, wood, compost, seeds, linseed oil in a 5’ x 5’ x 5’ cube Layering compost, harvested seed and soil from the Tinworks field, discarded brick from structures past in the northeast neighborhood, and clay and sand from a washed-out county road, A Repetition of Histories explores regeneration, reciprocity, and community in the northeast neighborhood. From May through October, 2024, artist-in-residence Wills Brewer’s evolving work has been in conversation with Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield—An Inspiration. The seed is in the ground; both are ephemeral in nature, for the whole community, and with nothing going to waste. A Repetition of Histories is also in conversation with future residential developments soon to dominate this historically-industrial district. Like the high-rise slated a stone’s throw from his piece, Brewers built this “development” vertically. Although the dwelling is not for people. As the seasons change, this adobe-inspired green space will cycle through decomposition, new growth, and absorption back into the land on which it was built. Perhaps a garden will grow, creatures will find habitat, or a new parking lot will take precedence. A Repetition of Histories will be on view at Tinworks Art for the duration of its existence. Special thanks to Ryan and Adrienne of Happy Trash Can for the compost. A Tornado is a Ladder You Can’t Climb Down, 2024 Print on polycarbonate panel, 70” x 35” PROPOSITO Latin for on/with purposeSpanish/Italian for purpose Tornadoes have specific purpose in the natural world, otherwise they would cease to exist. Wild flowers erupt in the areas around a tornado’s path; they are excellent seed dispersal units. In the natural world, we can think of the tornado as a tool. As humans, we have yet to understand the tornado. Perhaps this is because a tornado is a tool we can’t utilize, conquer, or control. We may never understand the tornado. The image in the background is a stone circle: one of many offerings and practices people have used to alter the path of a tornado. The stone circle is filled with wildflowers, suggesting it didn’t work last time, or maybe it did just in time to get the seeds tossed into that spot. Still, the tornado is a tool we don’t quite understand or know how to use. Like a ladder you can’t climb down. Brewer created this piece in harmony with the many seeds that make up A Repetition of Histories and Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield—An Inspiration. The seed is in the ground, 2024.

This residency was part of Tinworks Art’s 2024 exhibition season, The Lay of the Land, which featured a major new ecological artwork by Agnes Denes and work by five artists inspired by the land of the American West.

With an intergenerational mix of established and emerging artists, iconic work, and newly commissioned installations, The Lay of the Land explored how land in the West is represented. The included artworks connected to land and place through their physical materiality—wheat, sediment, soot, clay, the sound of passing trains—and subject matter—the natural or industrial forces that have shaped the land of the West and depictions of western places shaped by memory or technology.

Wills Brewer is a fifth generation Oklahoman who divides his time between Texas and California. He currently works in research-based, collected materials to explore the social, ecological, geological and systematic histories of place—specifically, place over time. He has mainly worked in ceramics (earth) for the past decade. As a tribal member raised outside of the community, he has had to do his own research on his histories, being circumstantially tied to a geographic region and the tributaries that it comes from. Brewer's work focuses on the idea of “The West” and the seemingly endless constructs that generates.