Las Vegas Weekly

Pancake art and butter pad pillows!

We’re not saying this art installation looks good enough to eat, but where’s the maple syrup?

In their first collaborative art installation, Todd VonBastiaans and Bryan McCarthy evoked an autarky of sorts, a throwback to pre-industrial communities in which artisans were tapped for their skills, leaving their handiwork on a product stamped by the region. In this case, it’s “Made in Las Vegas.” The product? Pancakes. Large-scale, high-end, well-designed and hand-crafted sculptures asserting that art can respond to any subject or object and even make people smile. Moreover, art can be hugged.

“We wanted to do something that makes people happy and could be functional,” says VonBastiaans inside Trifecta Gallery, where Todd n’ Bryan’s Pancake Bed (and Breakfast) opens nontraditionally at 7 a.m. on June 30, with edible cakes grilled by Bar + Bistro served with coffee and orange juice. “And they’re locally grown. This is about using local resources. Everything they’re made of is from Las Vegas proper.”

To create the installation, the artists handpicked pancakes from a local breakfast restaurant, had them photographed (front and back), enlarged the images to 36 inches in diameter and printed them onto recycled fabric, into which memory foam was placed to ensure realistic pancake behavior.

No two pancakes here are alike. There are thin and thick cakes—the latter bordered with various fabrics (pin stripes, faux fur, mirror ball, plaid, etc.). They can be stacked, used as pillows or hung on the wall.

“It is sculptural, but also practical. You can create a stack that is individual to you. You don’t want the fur? You don’t get the fur,” VonBastiaans says.

“That’s the joy of the individual pancake,” adds McCarthy.

A stack of three or more comes with a butter pad pillow. Viva la autarkic pancakes!