Arcadia

Information

Since the 1980s Pat Bruder has been creating sculptures using Meccano parts according to a specific fragile-balance system.  This material, usually used by children as a construction game, is here diverted and assembled as a motif, drawing light and the eye with its framework effect.  As Pat Bruder says, his work “plays on the balance between a sombre background and something dreamlike contributed by the ornamentation.”  Echoing the shape of the tomb from Nicolas Poussin’s (1594-1665) painting Arcadian shepherds, this work evokes the theme of Arcadia, a dream world where men and nature live together in ideal harmony, but also a space in which the human condition is questioned.