Equivalent VIII

One hundred and twenty firebricks laid in two layers, six by ten, in a low rectangle on the floor, with no plinth. Andre asks you to look down and treat the floor as part of the sculpture, and to notice that the work is the arrangement rather than the bricks themselves. That idea is clearest across the whole Equivalent series: each of its eight works is 120 firebricks in a different arrangement, so every one has the same mass and volume but a different footprint. Tate bought Equivalent VIII in 1972, and in 1976 it became a national argument about spending public money on bricks. It remains in Tate's collection in London but is only sometimes on display, so check before a visit.