"ENVIRONMENTAL
SCULPTURE read my calling
card in 1970. In 1969 the city architect, Dirk Hol, of Dordrecht NL had
contacted me to make a proposal for a sculpture in one of the courts of
new plant where handicapped people were to work. This court - patio, as
was refered to it in Dutch - was the main one adjoining the entrance
hall. Its main function was a visual one. The architect had designed a
garden with an L-shaped pond behind the glass wall
in the entrance hall. The sculpture was to
be placed in the inside corner, next to the pond. He gave me the possibility to make
proposals for the arrangement of the plants and
even the option to alter the shape of the pond. These words did not have
to be said twice to me. Since I was only beginning to explore the field
of sculpture, I had directed all of my attention to the objects I made,
solving their internal problems. But the idea that I could influence the
environment in which a sculpture
was to be situated aroused me. At the same time it did not seem
interesting to me to only rearrange or adjust the direct surroundings
- it would just
just not be enough.
All
the spaces around the court had either windows or the walls were
entirely of glass. Putting a sculpture there would more or less create a
show window effect. So it was evident to me that it was the garden
itself that needed to express itself. A sculpture could not make it what
it did not have itself. And a pond was for me too 'gardenish'. But water
as an element fascinated me. I literally overturned the pond and started working
with the idea of a plateau which would have water flowing over it."
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