Playground: Thomas Lerooy's playful sculptures that mix everyday objects with historical art

Following his usual style, the artworks play with motifs and themes, with shapes, materials and colours, and are created by an almost magical imagination in which he brings together the present with historical artistic, folkloric or scientific references that are apparently incompatible except in his intuitive 'imagination'.

Both the idea of playing and re-using known or existing images to create something new, is explicitly presented in Playground. Lerooy interpreted the exhibition space as his playpen, in which he built ‘play blocks’ tailored to the size of the museum and placed them in such a way to form a labyrinth.

Together, the different 'play blocks' not only represent an exhibition trail but also form a sculpture on their own to be experienced from within, without the possibility to see the sculpture from above as an entity. The geometric shapes and primary colours of the 'play blocks' refer simultaneously to the abstract modernism of the 1910s and 1920s, such as the art movement De Stijl of Piet Mondriaan and Theo Van Doesburg.

It presents an odd and unexpected new slant to his work, which has previously been associated with often dark and ominous imagery. Playground by Thomas Lerooy is on show at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens until 14 January 2017.

All images courtesy of the artist, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, and Gallery Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels