Russell Hackney - Ceramic Art
Bowen Island, BC

Et in Arcadia Ego

‘Et In Arcadia Ego’ (‘Even in Paradise there am I’) speaks of the importance of our connections in the context of time. It is thought that the phrase appears for the first time in art and architecture circa. 1622 and has become a frequent theme in the history of painting since Renaissance times. It is meant as a warning, that even in Arcadia/Paradise, death is always present. The theme was often represented in still life paintings by rotting fruit in a bowl, or a bowl of fruit that was dangerously close to the edge of a table. 

The beauty of living requires us to walk alongside death; this sharpens our love of life. The piece also argues that we have no choice in this; the falling figure has no volition - we ‘fall’ into this condition, this ‘contract’. I have illustrated the beauty and the decay through the life cycle of flowers and the appearance off of snakes, lizards and spiders amongst the foliage, which hint at the inevitable shocks and surprises in life. Early in conceiving this idea I was reminded of  the board game ’Snakes & Ladders’ I played as a child. That game was perhaps my earliest introduction to the vicissitudes of life.