MARKE MEYER BRONZE SCULPTURE

Tableaux #1 -

Hope, Faith & the Voice of Reason

Year: 2021

Dimensions: 45cm x 30cm x 30cm
Stainless steel bookcase, bronze book

Part of a series of 4 Tableaux

Mass: 20kg
Selling Price: R79 500

TABLEAUX SERIES (4 in this series)

Introduction:

Tableaux vivant (French for living picture) is a performance art form where people pose silently and motionlessly to recreate a scene, painting, myth, or idea — like a snapshot brought to life.

Tableaux #1: Hope, Faith & the Voice of Reason.

In Tableaux #1, six young women gather around a solitary library bookshelf. Three stand on each side, yet the boundary between them dissolves through a choreography of glances, gestures, and subtle points of contact. An elbow rests lightly on a shoulder, a hand steadies another’s arm, and each gaze threads its way through the lattice of empty shelves.

At the centre of this quiet tension sits a single volume: a book entitled Hope.

It is the only text available. The young women on either side confront the book directly — their expressions curious, searching, quietly expectant. They represent the instinctive human triad of belief, longing, and the impulse toward meaning.

They also gaze through the shelves at each other, their counterparts embodying reflection, discernment, and intelligence.

The sculpture captures a suspended dialogue between Hope, Faith, and Reason:

The bookshelf becomes both barrier and bridge, dividing perspectives while allowing vision. The figures form a living circuit — a tableau in which conviction, uncertainty, yearning, and clarity coexist in delicate equilibrium.