Author: rvde2019

Gadani

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Gadani

2024
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, #146, 174 x 130 x 14cm
Private collection, Netherlands.



On November 1 2016 an exploding gas tank led to an enormous fire on the oil tanker Aces at Gadani Ship Breaking Yard, Gaddani, Las Bela, Balochistan, in Pakistan. Officially there were 26 workers dead and 58 injured, but there are those who say it is more likely 80 men were killed. This catastrophe briefly caused worldwide outrage and discussion about worker safety on breaking yards like Gadani in Pakistan and Chittagong in Bangladesh. Sadly nothing has improved since, a grave injustice. The ships that get demolished there by guys in shorts wearing flip-flops are the same ships that have hauled our goods across the oceans. At the end of their life cycle they get sold to a paper company in a country with zero rules for their disposal, neatly beyond the responsibility of the companies that have built and exploited them.








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Dürerhaus

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Dürerhaus

2024
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, #145, 157 x 113 x 11cm
Collection Albrecht-Dürer-Haus Museum, Nuremberg, Germany.



Built around 1420, the Dürerhaus was the home of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer from 1509 to his death in 1528. Nuremberg was an early centre of humanism, science, printing, and mechanical invention. In 1515, Dürer created woodcuts of the first maps of the stars of both hemispheres, and the first perspective drawing of the terrestrial globe.
In the late stages of World War 2, from October 1944, Nuremberg was 90% destroyed by Allied bombing and heavy ground combat. The house took significant damage and was brought to the brink of collapse. The bas-relief shows it with various degrees of damage, consolidation attempts and repairs.
The Dürerhaus bas relief was finished on May 14th 2024. That day it was 84 years ago the city of Rotterdam was bombed by the Luftwaffe, laying waste to its entire historic centre. As we are witnessing the rise of nationalism, xenophobia and cynical gas-lighting let us hope this will not lead us back to an era of destruction.

The bas relief will become part of the collection of the City of Nuremberg. It will be installed in the Albrecht-Dürer-Haus Museum as part of the new permanent exhibition that will be presented on February 18th 2025.







Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

Available Work

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Available work in chronological order.
Feel free to contact me with questions: ron@artbbq.nl
Or reach out to the gallery: mail@ronmandos.nl







Sol Invictus

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Sol Invictus

2024
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 61 x 61 x 9cm

‘Unconquered Sun’ was a title used for some of the emperors of Rome. Sol Invictus depicts a section of the surface of the sun showing a large sunspot. This surface is also a landscape but one so severe we could never visit it as it is around 5,600 degrees Celsius. Earth happens to sit at exactly the right distance to it for life to be possible but the balance is precarious.

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

T-bone (Still Life 3)

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

T-bone (Still Life 3)

2024
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 176 x 155 x 18cm

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Studio Visit – 25 March 2024
just had a visit from butcher Chiel Neef. He came by to check what I’d done with his T-bone steak. A while ago I had asked at Sligro wholesale, a bit down the street from us, for the the Ultimate T-bone steak. I explained that it was for an art project. This made Chiel rather curious. He gave me the steak for free on the condition that he could come to see the end result. I’m glad he was very satisfied with it. All the details had the correct appearance; like the way the bone looks and the black flakiness of the dried edge. He was also glad that the meat had the correct ratio, with a relatively small tenderloin. But of course that was his own contribution, after all I had asked him for the ultimate cut!

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

1953 4

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

1953 4 (Wantij)

2023
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 60 x 60 x 9cm

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Het dichten van de dijkdoorbraak van het Wantij 1953

Foto’s: Regionaal Archief Dordrecht
https://beeldbank.regionaalarchiefdordrecht.nl/

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

1953 3

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

1953 3 (Wantij)

2023
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 60 x 60 x 9cm

Wantij1800
Wantij2800
Wantij3800
Wantij4800
Wantij5800

Het dichten van de dijkdoorbraak van het Wantij 1953

Foto’s: Regionaal Archief Dordrecht
https://beeldbank.regionaalarchiefdordrecht.nl/

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

1953 2

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

1953 2 (Ouderkerk)

2023
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 60 x 60 x 9cm

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

1953 1

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

1953 1 (Papendrecht)

2023
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 60 x 60 x 9cm

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

Nebraska

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Nebraska

2023
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 117 x 180 x 16cm

Three examples of nineteenth century stereo cards

Stereoscopic photo-prints were very popular around the turn of the century. Before mass tourism they were a way for people to connect to famous landmarks and sites all around the world. You can still find them and use them as a portal to a world that is long gone. The Nebraska relief is based on a stereoscopic card from 1908 depicting the “Platte Canon, South Park and Alpine Pass”. The name of the Platte river is a French translation of the original name the local Otoe people had for it. Nebraska means “flat water”. A narrow train track looks overwhelmed by the menacing rock faces beside it. You can only see a short distance ahead. Nobody knows what is waiting around the corner.

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

SASH

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

SASH

Bas-relief in salvaged wood #136, 9,5 x 1 x 17m.
Made from local poplar trees.
Built on assignment for BKOR Rotterdam (on permanent display opposite Voorschoterlaan subway station, Rotterdam).
photo by Bob Goedewaagen.

A large public sculpture built in july 2022 on the side of a six story apartment building on the corner of the Oudedijk and the Voorschoterlaan in Kralingen, Rotterdam. The project started in 2017 as a local initiative under the guidance of BKOR Rotterdam. Work started in December 2020 when seven large local poplar trees were cut down to the specifications of the artist. SASH is a bas-relief of a sliding window constructed in perspective. It is modeled after a window from the Voorschoterlaan from poplar trees from the Kralingsebos that were scheduled to be felled and processed as waste. The trunks were milled in Stroe, dried in Zelhem, thermally modified in Sevenum and planed in Maasdijk, a process that took 18 months. The artwork was prepared by a team of five while Vincent Petit built the supporting steel structure in the shipyards of Oud IJsselmonde. In july ’22 SASH was assembled on location.

Watch a film about the construction process of SASH made by Ron with his daughter Mila van der Ende
(Dutch with English subtitles):

Some examples of work done on commission:

Progress

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Progress (Maaskant poortgebouw)

2022
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 164 x 131 x 15cm.
Collection of VORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Work linked to the city of Rotterdam:

Val Tremola

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Val Tremola

2021
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #133, 182 diameter x 14cm.
Private collection, Barcelona, Spain.

Val Tremola shows the hairpin bends of the Tremola Valley that are part of the old Gotthard Pass route. One of the highest paved roads in Europe, it used to be a busy connection until the Gotthard Road Tunnel opened in 1980. It is preserved as a monument appearing today as it was in 1951.
The Val Tremola relief was based on vintage postcards and constructed using salvaged wood, utilizing the worn and weathered character of the surfaces to emulate the terrain.

Postcards of the Tremola Valley and the Saint Gotthard Pass.

Landwasser

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Landwasser

2020
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #130, 182 diameter x 14cm.
Collection Roberto Sassmannshausen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Postcards showing the Landwasser Viaduct.

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

Jericho

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Jericho

2020
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #129, 184 x 153 x 15cm.

Jericho is the second bas-relief based on photo’s of a tree stump in the Yosemite valley in California. The first one, made in 2013, was titled Holocene. Such a cross section forms a record of time, while it also demonstrates our brutal relationship with nature. Jericho was made in 2020. This time the decaying chunk of wood is rendered in red, white and blue, a color scheme familiar from many national flags. The title references the tower of Jericho which today itself rather resembles a fossilized tree trunk. That tower is one of the oldest monumental structures, built around 10.000 years ago at the dawn of the agricultural revolution. It is located in the Palestinian West Bank, today an area in crisis.

View of the tower from the east showing both openings.
Image source: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/barkai327/

Part of the Alluvial Plain exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in December 2024.

Mod

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Mod

2020
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #128, 110 x 110 x 11cm.
Collection Meta Goossen and Olphaert den Otter, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Mod emerged from a plunge into the world of high end turntable cartridges.
(example: https://www.vinylengine.com)

Shure V15-III phono cartridge.

Some examples of work done on commission:

Lambchop

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Lambchop (Still Life 2)

2019
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #127, 189 x 112 x 14cm.
Collection Museum LAM, Lisse, Netherlands.

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Team Mandos installing the Markers exhibition.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Mediator

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Mediator

2019
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #126, 99 x 212 x 13cm.

In March 2019 Van der Ende paid a visit to artist Diet Wiegman in his Schiedam studio. He knew Wiegman to possess a collection of masks from around the globe, collected through the decades on auctions and flea-markets. The visit resulted in a series of photos of the back of these masks.
“I chose an African tribal mask as a starting point for the Mediator sculpture because it had an interesting shape and appearance. In all probability, it came from the Senufo culture in the region of Southern Mali, Northern Ivory Coast en Western Burkina Faso. Wiegman had bought this mask in an auction some 35 years ago, without any documentation. To try and reconnect it to its place of origin I collected street photos from the region and incorporated those into the work. The mosaic is executed in the strict color scheme of the local Bògòlanfini or ‘mudcloth’ technique, with dirty whites, red and yellow earth tones and black.”

The title Mediator comes from a quote from Pablo Picasso about his visit to the Trocadéro ethnographic museum in Paris in 1907, an occasion Picasso sees as the birth of modern art.

“When I went to the old Trocadéro, it was disgusting. The Flea Market. The smell. I was all alone. I wanted to get away. But I didn’t leave. I stayed. I stayed. I understood that it was very important: something was happening to me, right?
The masks weren’t just like any other pieces of sculpture. Not at all. They were magic things. But why weren’t the Egyptian pieces or the Chaldean? We hadn’t realized it. Those were primitives, not magic things. The Negro pieces were intercesseurs, mediators; ever since then I’ve known the word in French. They were against everything—against unknown, threatening spirits. I always looked at fetishes. I understood; I too am against everything. I too believe that everything is unknown, that everything is an enemy! Everything! “
(Picasso’s Mask, André Malraux, New York, 1976, p10-11)

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Truck Wash

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Truck Wash

2019
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #125, 182 x 146 x 14cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Truck Wash on the workbench in 2019.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Canyon

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Grand Canyon

2013-2019
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #124, 149 x 183 x 11cm.
Private collection, Delft, Netherlands.

The cover of Arizona Highways magazine of February 1938 was the model for the Grand Canyon bas relief. The photo shows Emery Falls on Lake Mead in Arizona. Today Lake Mead is many miles away. The lake is manmade and formed after the completion of the Hoover Dam in 1935. Because of drought and increased demand for water the lake has been shrinking for decades. It is currently at less than 40% capacity.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Gletsjer

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Unterer Grindelwaldgletsjer

2013-2019
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #123, 149 x 183 x 11cm.
Private collection, Grindelwald, Switserland.

The Unterer Grindelwaldgletsjer bas relief was based on postcards of this glacier in the Swiss Alps from around 1900. The Lower Grindelwald Glacier covered more than 20 km2 fifty years ago but today it is retreating rapidly.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Floe

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Floe (Transition 5)

2018
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #122, 170 x 85 x 12cm.

Floe is the last in a series of five reliefs based on local archeological finds representing pots, dishes, and bottles.

Floe is based on an iridescent (wine or water) bottle from the second half of the eighteenth century. The word ‘floe’ is used for floating ice sheets in the polar regions.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

The Blimp

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

The Blimp (Transition 4)

2018
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #121, 174 x 161 x 15cm

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

KIT

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

KIT

2018
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 460 x 460 x 32cm.
Made on commission for Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Photo’s: Bob Goedewaagen.

This work is on permanent 24 hour a day display in the main entrance of the Erasmus MC hospital in Rotterdam.

KIT depicts a monumental cube consisting of colored wooden blocks. It is the largest salvaged wood bas-relief to date. As an object it is like an emblem or a coat of arms. But the image appears like a giant three dimensional puzzle. Within an improvised stack the parts are seemingly still looking for their final place. The work is meant to symbolize ‘accepting a challenge’ and to encourage anybody navigating the hallways of this large institute, as an emphasis on the power of the individual.

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Some Erasmus M.C. video clips from the project (Dutch):

Some examples of work done on commission:

Euromast 3

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Euromast 3

2018
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #119, 210 x 184 x 18cm.
Made on commission for Euromast Vastgoed BV, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Private collection Rotterdam, Netherlands.

This work was on display at the Euromast observation tower 2018 through 2020.

Work linked to the city of Rotterdam:

Flux

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Flux (Transition 3)

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #118, 173 x 107 x 11cm

Flux is based on a ‘starling pot’, a nesting pot, estimated to be from the 17th or 18th century. The color scheme revolves around oxblood red, pinks and greys.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Superlotado

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Superlotado (Transition 2)

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #117, 124 x 145 x 17cm.
Private collection, Berlin, Germany.

Superlotado is a word from the Portuguese language meaning ‘full to the brim’.
It signifies affluence and superabundance.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Reverb-Decay

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Reverb/Decay (Transition 1)

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #116, 119 x 218 x 13cm.
Concordia Collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Reverb/Decay

Reverb/Decay is the first in a series of five reliefs based on archeological finds from the soil in and around the city of Rotterdam. They represent pots, dishes, and bottles that have been discarded throughout the history of human settlement in the area. All the original specimens come from the collection of Museum Rotterdam.
The works in the series are numbered Transition 1 through 5. The term Transition refers to their regular shapes, which are mathematically defined by a transition that is relative to a single axis.

The Reverb/Decay bas-relief is based on an albarello, an ointment jar, that dates from the sixteenth century. The glazed jar decorated with stripes and leaves was used as a starting point for intense experimentation with color and texture intended to make the work visually vibrate. The name is in reference to synthesizer equipment where the term can be found next to the buttons that regulate audio loops. “Reverb” regulates repetition within the loop and “Decay” regulates decline.

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

De Noord

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

De Noord

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #115, 94 x 234 x 16cm.

De Noord was a windmill on the Oostplein square in Rotterdam that was origianlly built in 1562 and later rebuilt and adapted several times. 14 years after it miraculous survival of the town fire of 1940 the mill caught fire and was demolished.
The bas-relief shows the tipical elongated shape of De Noord without the blades and other consctructions, the shape it had after the fire, but with the spectacular commercial signs that the mill had been know for since the early twentieth century.
(source: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Noord_(Rotterdam))

Part of the Markers exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam in 2020.

Jacht

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Jacht (Yacht)

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #114, 270 x 178 x 24cm.
Private collection, Hoorn, Netherlands.

Some examples of work done on commission:

DINO 246 GT

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

DINO 246 GT (1973)

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #113, 222 x 98 x 15cm.
Private collection, Plakias, Crete, Greece.

The Ferrari Dino was named after Alfredo “Dino” Ferrari (son of Enzo Ferrari) who died in 1956 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy aged only 24. Today, 60 years later, there is still no cure for this disease. A few years ago a 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GT-Euro was found in a barn in California. It is currently being restored in a project to raise awareness about the disease and money to fight it. The Dino bas-relief depicts this car mid-reconstruction.

Donate money and read about Duchennes at:
The Dino Ferrari Project: http://dinoferrariproject.com
Duchenne Parent Project: https://duchenne.nl

Some examples of work done on commission:

Industrie gebouw

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Industriegebouw

2017
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #112, 139 x 196 x 14cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Industriegebouw Goudsesingel.

Het Industriegebouw is a building in Rotterdam designed by H.A. Maaskant, W. van Tijen and E. Groosman. In typology, function and appearance it became a powerful symbol of the Wederopbouw, the post war rebuilding policy of Rotterdam. The building was completed in 1952 and over the past few years it has been revived as an important cultural hub. 

Some examples of work done on commission:

Hatchet Job

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Hatchet Job

2016
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #111, 239 x 148 x 16cm.
Private collection, London, United Kingdom.

Hatchet Job on the studio wall in 2016.

Preliminary sketch for Hatchet Job.

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

Oracle

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Oracle

2016
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #110, 190 x 122 x 12cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

This bas relief was based on a window frame that is part of the Oracle assemblage by Robert Rauschenberg from 1965 that is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

Salvage

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Salvage (Baltic Ace)

2016
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #109, 162 x 213 x 15cm.
Corporate collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Baltic Ace was a roll-on/roll-off car carrier that sank in the North Sea on 5th December 2012 after a collision with a container ship. It sank within 15 minutes in shallow waters. Only 13 of the crew of 24 were rescued. The wreck was lifted in chunks in 2015 and transported to Waalhaven in Rotterdam where the photo was taken that was the basis for the bas-relief.
(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Baltic_Ace)

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

Cog

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Cog

2016
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #108, 170 x 124 x 12cm.
Private collection, Moscow, Russian Federatian.

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

Europa

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Europa

2015
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #107, 168 x 168 x 14cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Europa is one of the moons of Jupiter and it was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. It is slightly smaller than the Moon, and has a water-ice crust striated by cracks and streaks. It has the smoothest surface of any known solid object in the Solar System which led to the hypothesis that a water ocean exists beneath it, which could conceivably serve as an abode for extra-terrestrial life – a prospect that has made Europa a candidate for a future visit by probe.
(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon))

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

#9532

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

#9532 (The Whale)

2015
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #106, 190 x 136 x 12cm.
Collection of Frits van Dongen, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Some examples of work done on commission:

Body Buck

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Body Buck

2014
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #105, 322 x 116 x 15cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

A body-buck or hammer-form is a sturdy wooden structure used in producing one-off metal panels for coachwork. It is used for prototypes, concept cars and restoration projects. This bas-relief is a rendition of the body buck for the Bizzarrini Manta Concept by Ital Design in 1969.

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Photo’s of the construction process of the original car.
Thanks to Jack Koobs de Hartog for most of these images.

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

380HP

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

380HP

2015
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #104, 194 x 164 x 12cm.
Collection of Staalduinen Logistics. Maasdijk, Netherlands.
Made for Hofman Bouwbedrijf, Maasdijk.

Some examples of work done on commission:

Wedges

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Wedges

2014
Group of bas-reliefs in salvaged wood #103, size ca. 2 x 2m.

Made for the The factory Set retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam 2014/15. A total of 37 bas reliefs were shown. Most of them on loan.

Black Ark

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Black Ark

2014
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #102, engraved 310 x 105 x 16 cm.
Private collection, Berlin, Germany.

Black Ark fuses worlds that are far apart. The shape of the work is based on a boulder from the D20 ‘hunebed’ (dolmen) in Drenthe, NL. The wood covering Black Ark has black paint over a green base. It is engraved with copies of contemporary shamanic drawings by Lee Perry at his Black Ark studio in Jamaica.
(source for the Lee Perry drawings: afflictedyard.com/scratchark)

All the works that were part of the Bare Bones exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam in 2016.

Barn Raising

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Barn Raising

2014
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #101, 410 x 327 x 22cm.

A ‘barn raising’ is a collective action by a community to build a barn for one of its members. Barn raising was particularly common in 18th and 19th century rural North America. The tradition continues in some Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities, particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and some rural parts of Canada.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising) 

Made for the The factory Set retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam 2014/15. A total of 37 bas reliefs were shown. Most of them on loan.

Veneer Theory

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Veneer Theory

2014
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #100, 152 x 154 x 16cm.
Private collection, Osaka, Japan.

Veneer theory is a term coined by Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal to designate a certain view of human morality which he criticizes in his book ‘Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved’. De Waal rejects the idea that human morality is ‘a cultural overlay, a thin veneer hiding an otherwise selfish and brutish nature’. He instead sees our morality as a direct outgrowth of the social instincts that human beings share with other animals.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneer_theory) 

Made for the The factory Set retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam 2014/15. A total of 37 bas reliefs were shown. Most of them on loan.

Holocene

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Holocene

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #99, 160 x 168 x 16cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene some 12,000 years ago, coinciding with the earliest signs of the Neolithic Revolution (the change from hunting and gathering to agriculture). It continues to the present. The Holocene has been identified with the current warm period, and can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age. The Holocene also encompasses the expansion of the human population and its impact on the world environment, and is therefore sometimes called the Anthropocene.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene)

Made for the The factory Set retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam 2014/15. A total of 37 bas reliefs were shown. Most of them on loan.

Fleet

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Fleet

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #98, 168 x 168 x 16cm.
Private collection, Arnhem, Netherlands.

Made for the The factory Set retrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam 2014/15. A total of 37 bas reliefs were shown. Most of them on loan.

Tingmissartoq

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Tingmissartoq

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #97, 110 x 105 x 15cm.
Collection Verre Bergen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Tingmissartoq

In 1931 an Inuit boy in Gothaab, Greenland was confronted with a Lockheed Sirius Model 8 airplane, a monoplane outfitted with floats so it could land almost anywhere. He named it Tingmissartoq, ‘one who flies like a big bird’. The plane was piloted by Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
It was only 4 years since Lindbergh had become famous for flying the Spirit of St. Louis non-stop from New York to Paris, but in the meantime aviation had made huge progress. It was now clear that the future lay in large scale passenger aviation, although political and industrial powers would have to be brought on board. Factories and airfields were needed and the maps of the world had to be redrawn to show flyable air routes and not only information for water and land navigation. In 1931 and 1933 Lindbergh and his wife took it upon themselves to connect the dots in two world tours, meeting the wealthy and powerful wherever they went and spreading the gospel.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Tingmissartoq) 

Image 1 : The Tingmissartoq Name.
Photo by Eric Long, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
(source: pioneersofflight.si.edu)
Image 2 : Route map created by Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh after their flight.
(source: timeandnavigation.si.edu)
Image 3 : The Lindberghs take of for Geneva after a visit to Rotterdam Waalhaven [1933]
(source: Kees van Dongen Waalhavenverzameling)

The age of discovery:

Rounds

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Rounds

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #96, 111 x 167 x 14cm.
Private collection, Delft, Netherlands.

Part of the Phasmid exhibition in 2012 at Ambach & Rice gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA:

Type Stack

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Type Stack (BENWAY)

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #95, 144 x 142 x 16cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Part of the Phasmid exhibition in 2012 at Ambach & Rice gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA:

Cyclotron

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Cyclotron

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #94, 315 x 109 x 15cm in two parts.
Private collection, Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece.

Part of the Phasmid exhibition in 2012 at Ambach & Rice gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA:

Watershed

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Watershed (Yosemite)

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #93, 180 x 200 x 12cm.
Part of the Mirror Lake project, a large site specific installation on commission for The State of the Netherlands.

Yosemite Valley on June 11th 2013. For scale, El Capitan, the rock face on the left is well over two times the height of the Empire State Building.

Part of the Mirror Lake project; 2011-2013:

Fm3m

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Fm3m/Salt

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #92, 191 x 170 x 15cm.
Private collection, Madrid, Spain.

Crystals of common salt (also known as rock salt, halite or sodium chloride) are cuboid in shape. In other words they are made up of rectangular slabs with right-angled corners. The shape arises because, at a molecular level, the sodium and chlorine ions are spaced on a regular cubic grid or ‘lattice’. The crystals belong to the cubic system (one of 7 main crystal systems), and more specifically to a symmetry class identified by the international symbol Fm3m (one of over 200 possible space groups).
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_crystal_system) 

Part of the Phasmid exhibition in 2012 at Ambach & Rice gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA:

Cold Storage

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Cold Storage

2013
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #91, 194 x 132 x 15cm.
Corporate collection, Houston, Texas, United States.

PHASMID

The Phasmid or Phasmatodea are an order of insects commonly known as stick insects. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek phasma, meaning an apparition or phantom.

Part of the Phasmid exhibition in 2012 at Ambach & Rice gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA:

Brimstone

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Brimstone

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #90, 79 x 85 x 10cm.
Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Fire and Brimstone is an idiomatic expression of signs of God’s wrath in the Bible. It can also refer to a style of Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of judgment and eternal damnation to encourage repentance. Brimstone is another name for sulphur.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_brimstone) 

The volcano and the sulfur crystal were made for the Ambach & Rice presentation at NADA art fair, Miami Beach, FL, USA in 2012.

Yaw

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Yaw (from the Svabhāva subset: Pitch/Roll/Yaw)

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #89, 160 x 165 x 12cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Part of the Edge of Space exhibition in 2012 at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam.

Roll

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Roll (from the Svabhāva subset: Pitch/Roll/Yaw)

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #88, 127 x 174 x 10cm.
Private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Part of the Edge of Space exhibition in 2012 at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam.

Volcano

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Volcano (Moses and Geology)

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #87, 229 x 152 x 12cm.
Private collection, Lee Bay, United Kingdom.

The Volcano  relief is based on an illustration of the workings of a volcano taken from the book ‘Moses and Geology’. The book, published in 1883, was an attempt to explain the physical workings of our planet in the light of the Bible and so to counter the great advances in science that had been made earlier that century.

Excerpt from MOSES AND GEOLOGY: Or The Harmony Of The Bible With Sience by Samual Kinns

… ‘In the month of June, 1759, the cultivators of the farm began to be disturbed by strange subterranean noises of an alarming kind, accompanied by frequent shocks of earthquake, which continued for nearly a couple of months; but they afterwards entirely ceased, so that the inhabitants of the place were lulled into security. On the night between the 28th and 29th of September, however, the subterranean noises were renewed with greater loudness than before, and the ground shook awfully. The Indian servants living on the place started from their beds in terror, and fled to the neighbouring mountains. Thence gazing upon their master’s farm, they beheld it, along with a tract of ground measuring between three and four square miles, raised up, as if it had been inflated from beneath like a bladder. At the edges this tract was uplifted about thirty-nine feet above the original surface, but so great was its convexity that towards the middle it attained a height of no less than 524 feet.

The Indians who beheld this strange phenomenon declared that they saw flames issuing from several parts of this elevated tract, and that the entire surface became agitated like a stormy sea. Great clouds of ashes, illuminated by volcanic fires glowing beneath them, rose at several points, and white-hot stones were thrown to an immense height. Vast chasms at the same time opened in the ground, and into these the two small rivers above mentioned plunged. Their waters, instead of extinguishing the subterranean conflagration, appeared only to add to its intensity.
Quantities of mud enveloping balls of basalt were now thrown up, and the surface of the elevated ground became studded with small cones, from which volumes of dense vapour, chiefly steam, were emitted, some of the jets rising from twenty to thirty feet in height. These cones the Indians called ovens, and in many of them is heard even now a subterranean noise resembling that of water briskly boiling.
Out of a great chasm in the midst of these ovens there were thrown up six larger elevations, the highest being 1,600 feet above the level of the plain, and now constituting the principal volcano of Jorullo, which has a regular volcanic crater, whence have been thrown up great quantities of stones and lava containing fragments of older rocks. The ashes emitted from the volcano were thrown to an immense distance, some of them having fallen on the houses at Queretaro, 150 miles from Jorullo.

How privileged were the men who saw one of these upheavals of the Earth’s crust! And though but a small matter compared with the rising of mountain-chains, yet it must have been strikingly grand to see a mountain springing up from the level ground, with all the attendant phenomena; and if they were believers in Revelation, how it must have convinced them of the truthfulness of the Biblical story, and the great power of the Creator in ordaining laws which should bring about similar results to those related by Moses!’ …
(from: Moses and Geology, page 98)

The volcano and the sulfur crystal were made for the Ambach & Rice presentation at NADA art fair, Miami Beach, FL, USA in 2012.

Pitch

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Pitch (from the Svabhāva subset: Pitch/Roll/Yaw)

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #86, 234 x 193 x 15cm.
Private collection, Leiden, Netherlands.

Svabhāva

The Sanskrit word Svabhava literally means ‘own-being’ or ‘own-becoming’. It is the intrinsic, essential nature or essence of living beings. The Buddhist symbol for Svabhāva is a wooden wheel.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Svabhāva)

Line Shaft

A line shaft is a power driven rotating shaft for power transmission that was used extensively from the Industrial Revolution until the early 20th century. Before widespread use of electric motors small enough to be connected directly to each piece of machinery, line shafting was used to distribute power from a large central power source to machinery throughout a workshop or an industrial complex. The central power source could be a water wheel, turbine, windmill, animal power or steam engine. Power was distributed from the shaft to the machinery by a system of belts, pulleys and gears known as millwork. The pulleys were constructed of wood, iron or steel. Varying sizes of pulleys were used in conjunction to change the speed of rotation. Near the end of the 19th century, some factories had a mile or more of line shafts in a single building.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_shaft)

Examples of wooden pulleys.
(source: stoommachine.info/drijfwerk) 

Part of the Edge of Space exhibition in 2012 at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam.

p4004

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

p4004

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #85, 196 x 156 x 15cm.
Private collection, Katwijk, Netherlands.

The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in November 1971 when, with the prophetic ad ‘Announcing a new era in integrated electronics’, the 4004 was made commercially available to the general market. The 4004 was history’s first monolithic CPU, fully integrated in one small chip.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004) 

Part of the Edge of Space exhibition in 2012 at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam.

Yoshiwara

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Yoshiwara

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #84, 120 x 245 x 12cm.
Private collection, Moscow, Russian Federation.

Yoshiwara was a famous yūkaku (pleasure district) in Edo, the precursor of present-day Tokyo, Japan. To confine and regulate prostitution in Japan in the early 17th century, it was restricted to designated city districts in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo in an attempt by the Tokugawa shogunate to prevent the nouveau riche chōnin (townsmen) from engaging in political intrigue. The Yoshiwara was created in the city of Edo in 1617, near what is today known as Nihonbashi. In 1656, due to the need for space as the city grew, the government decided to relocate Yoshiwara and plans were made to move the district to its present location north of Asakusa on the outskirts of the city.

The Yoshiwara was home to some 1,750 to 3,000 women during the 18th century. The area had over 9,000 women in 1893, many of whom suffered from syphilis. Girls were typically sent there by their parents between the ages of seven to twelve. When a girl was old enough and had completed her apprenticeship, she would become a courtesan and work her way up the ranks. Social classes were not strictly divided in Yoshiwara.
A commoner with enough money would be served as an equal to a samurai. Yoshiwara became a strong commercial area. The fashions in the town changed frequently, creating a great demand for merchants and artisans. Traditionally the prostitutes were supposed to wear only simple blue robes, but this was rarely enforced. The high-ranking ladies often dressed in the highest fashion of the time, with brightly colored silk kimonos and expensive, elaborate hair decorations. Fashion was so important in Yoshiwara that it frequently dictated the fashion trends for the rest of Japan. Yoshiwara remained in business until prostitution was made illegal in 1958.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiwara)

Part of the Edge of Space exhibition in 2012 at Ron Mandos gallery, Amsterdam.

Tree/Bridge

index of sculptures 1988 to 2024

Tree/Bridge

2012
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #83, 305 x 100 x 12cm (made for a curved wall, radius 10m).
Part of the Mirror Lake project, a large site specific installation on commission for The State of the Netherlands.

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