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SATELLITE SCULPTURE IMAGES
Barendrecht, near Rotterdam, Holland - its environmental sculpture seen from the satellite - a satellite view of the Pieter Janszoon Saenredam project.
winter
Pieter Janszoon Saenredam project - 50X80m reservoir
and 30X30m island with osier - 1982|1985/∞ - Barendrecht NL
The town of Barendrecht invited me to make a proposal for environmental art in this area - leaving the material, measurements, concept and location up to me. In the newest part of Barendrecht, the Molenwijk, which had not been built at that moment, a kidney shaped water reservoir had been projected. it was to collect the excess water which would flow into it during wet spells. I proposed to alter its shape and make use of the existing divisions of the parcels of land, the lines of which converged. from ground level one perceives rectangular shapes. Parallel to these lines I planned an island which, in fact, is a trapezoid - though on the ground- a square. The island is subdivided into four smaller areas - each being made up of a grid of eight by eight pollarded willows. In time the tops of the willows will become wider because of the pollarding - dividing the inner space into fifteen by fifteen vaults like in Romanesque and gothic churches. This fact, together with the mathematics which aided in the construction of this natural architecture, gave me the feeling of relating with the work method of the seventeenth century Dutch painter Pieter Janszoon Saenredam.
