[Above: Architectural Fragment by Petrus Spronk].
Architectural Fragment (1992) is a Pythagorean triangle which expresses a strong association with the geometry of ancient Greece. The sculpture is made from Port Fairy blue stone and is situated outside the State Library of Victoria, on the corner of Swanston & LaTrobe Streets, Melbourne. It was created by Dutch-born, Australian sculptor Petrus Spronk. He was commissioned to undertake this as part of Swanston Street Walk Public Art Project in 1992.
- Petrus Spronk immigrated to Australia in 1957 and trained as a ceramicist and sculptor in South Australia. These days the artist lives in a clearing in the forest, near Daylesford in Victoria, working in his studio and tending to his vegetable garden.
In ‘Architectural Fragment‘ the sculpture represents a fragment of the library emerging from the pavement as an archaeological artifact might. Spronks’ intention was to create a dialogue between art, history and place. His inspiration was Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias which speaks of the fragile and transient nature of all that is human. Quoting from the poem the pedestal reads:
‘My name is Ozymandias,
King of Kings.
Look on my work you mighty,
and despair’.
Like a fallen classical monument ‘Architectural Fragment‘ reflects the past and alludes other transience of the present. However, it still looks like it is slipping away, representing the death of the library.
It is also a great skate board mount!
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