kinetic installation
Lucien den Arend created an island with a living cathedral in 1985 in honor of the 17th century painter of church interiors, Pieter Janszoon Saenredam. For the 7th lustrum, Schermer has added the image of a free-standing ladder. Saenredam applied the perspective rules to create a 3D image on a canvas. Schermer does the opposite and creates a spatial 2D image that seems to reach into the sky through a trompe l’oeil effect.
The ladder refers to the Jacob’s ladder in the Bible and invites people to dream, to dream consciously in search of your inner wisdom. The ladder splits open at the top and thus refers to the technic Jacob’s ladder. Two outward bending metal rods are put under high voltage, which causes a visible electric current to rise between the two rods and thus refers to the danger of the increasing polarization in our society. The split also refers to the effort you have to make to connect with the celestial, it looks like a zipper that cannot fully close.
The question is also whether it is heaven itself that splits the ladder open, as long as man treats the earth so irresponsibly heaven remains unreachable. The golden circle you see at the top is the Chinese symbol for heaven.
description: A freestanding ladder rises 17.5 meters into the air between the pollard willows of the Saenredam Island. The ladder sways in the wind. At the top, the ladder splits open by a gold ring that spins in the wind, when it spins fast it forms a transparent gold sphere. The ladder is made of glass fiber poles and spinnaker cloth, the ring is 3D printed and gold plated. The total weighs less than 5 kg.
lustrum exposition: Saenredam Island, Barendrecht, The Netherlands
2022
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In the pdf below my considerations concerning the project, 2019 – 2021
overwegingen_bij_de_conceptontwikkeling.pdf