QUIKRETE® finds artistic flair in new museum exhibit

Words: Chad CorleyThe QUIKRETE® Companies found an unexpected place in the New Museum’s presentation of “Chris Burden: Extreme Measures,” the renown artist’s first New York survey and his first major U.S. exhibition in more than twenty-five years. The exhibition, which is on view from Oct. 2, 2013 to Jan. 12, 2014, presents a selection of Burden’s work across various medium spanning his forty-year career including Beehive Bunker and A Tale of Two Cities featuring QUIKRETE® products.

Over the past four decades, Burden has created a unique and powerful body of work that has redefined the way we understand both performance and sculpture. The exhibition at the New Museum features a selection of Burden’s work focused on marvels of engineering, such as buildings, vehicles, war machines, and bridges, consistently engaging with the representation of masculinity and the destructive potential latent in engineering pursuits. With that in mind, the use of QUIKRETE® materials for the Beehive Bunker and A Tale of Two Cities exhibits made perfect sense.

Beehive Bunker, 2006

Beehive Bunker is a low cost defensive structure to be occupied by one to three persons. This monumental dwelling reconfigures more than 300 bags of QUIKRETE® Concrete Mix and more than 300 of QUIKRETE® Fast-Setting Concrete Mix in a stacked pattern to create an imposing environment that treat the landscape of the city as a place of constant threat to the individual body. The bags of concrete were watered in the gallery, so it hardened during installation process.

A Tale of Two Cities, 1981

War toys to model a hypothetical conflict between two warring city-states. The installation amplifies the mock staging of violence typical of male childhood play in order to make contemporary warfare. Installation of the two miniature cities covering about 1,000 square feet required 1,040 bags of QUIKRETE® All-Purpose Sand covered by approximately 5,000 toys, plants and boulders.

For more information on the “Chris Burden: Extreme Measures” presentation at the New Museum, please visit www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/chris-burden-extreme-measures. The New Museum, which is located at 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002, is open from 11 a.m. — 6 p.m. EST on Wed. and Fri. through Sun., and from 11 a.m. — 9 p.m. EST on Thurs.
Britt Stokes, Acme Brick’s Director of Marketing, Retires.
August 2026

Fort Worth, Texas – After faithfully serving Acme Brick Company for 40 years, Britt has chosen to retire – although he will still be involved with Acme on various projects. Britt began his career with Acme as staff photographer and through dedicati

Industry News
Read More
Sainte-Cécile Cathedral
August 2026

Imagine being handed a set of plans calling for the largest brick cathedral in the world. Now imagine building it without modern cranes, engineered scaffolding, forklifts, power tools, or structural analysis software. That was the challenge facing medie

Cass Stern
Marvelous Masonry
Read More
Why SkillsUSA is the Keystone to MCAA’s Outreach
August 2026

When I stepped into the role of the MCAA’s first Director of Youth Outreach and Education, I knew we had a massive job ahead of us. I am a fourth-generation brick mason, and I have spent over two decades teaching the trade, from working with apprentices a

Robert Melgaard
Outreach Outlook
Read More
The First Paycheck
August 2026

Several years ago, Huntley Brothers hired a young apprentice. It was his first real job, and he had never had a paycheck before. Friday rolled around, and he got paid just like everyone else. Later that day, one of the guys told me something I have never

Kent Huntley
Chairman’s Message
Read More