
Departure (Boeing 757) [2021]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 283 x 205 x 17cm
Limo 1 [2009]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 184 x 115 x 12cm
(private collection Bassano Del Grappa, Italy)
Limo 1 is based on the Cadillac Fleetwood, state car to Ronald Reagan in the early eighties.
Ronald Reagan pointing a gun in defense of a boy. Clipping of a movie poster pasted to the back of the Limo 1 relief.
Part of the Shallow Wade exhibition at OkOk gallery, in Seattle, WA, USA.
Vostok [2006]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 130 x 130 x 14cm
(private collection, Wassenaar, Netherlands)
More ‘space junk’:
Tin Can (Friendship7) [2005]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood 110 x 70 x 10cm
(Concordia Collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
This image was glued to the back of Tin Can. (Because the work was made for ‘de Aanschouw’ where the rear could also be seen, I decided to apply an image to the back for the first time). This photo by NASA shows an apprehensive John Glenn, just before his launch into space, becoming the first American to circle the globe.
More ‘space junk’:
Blokpost 1 (Signal Box 1) [2009]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 65 x 85 x 10cm
(private collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Image glued to the rear of Blokpost 1, lifted from a Faller catalog, showing their head office.
Work about dioramas and model trains:
Euromast 1 [2005]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 205 x 182 x 16cm
(collection Museum Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Construction of the Euromast bas relief.
The Euromast observation tower was designed by Hugh Maaskant and built in 1958-1960. It is a symbol of the reconstruction of Rotterdam.
Euromast
The Euromast observation tower was designed by Hugh Maaskant and built in 1958-1960 to a height of 101 meters. A further 85 meters were added in 1970 so that it would remain the tallest built structure in Rotterdam. Originally intended for the Floriade event in 1960, it has come to symbolize the spirit of post World War II reconstruction.
All the work related to Rotterdam:
Axonometric Array [2008]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, size variable ca. 7m50 x 3m50 x 25cm
Built on assignment for WORM alternative music and film venue in Rotterdam (on permanent display)
This computer collage is the original design for Axonometric Array. It incorporated a cassette tape recorder but that was later omitted. Cassette tapes were chosen as a subject because of their d.i.y. aspect which perfectly fits the WORM venue: https://worm.org
An important source for the look of the tapes was http://www.tapedeck.org/
Part of a set of HiFi themed objects. The first set of 4 was a solo show at Delta gallery Rotterdam.
PC [2008]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 245 x 75 x 16cm
(private collection, Wassenaar Netherlands)
On August 12, 1981 IBM introduced its first personal computer called the IBM PC. The computer was equipped with an 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory expandable to 256 KB, and the MS-DOS operating system. (source: wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC)
Part of a set of HiFi themed objects. The first set of 4 was a solo show at Delta gallery Rotterdam.
KEF Speakers [2006]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 143x105x10cm and 124x84x10cm. total dim. variable
(private collection Schiedam, Netherlands)
Part of a set of HiFi themed objects. The first set of 4 was a solo show at Delta gallery Rotterdam.
Akai-VT100 (open reel portable video recorder) [2006]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 145 x 175 x 12cm
(private collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Part of a set of HiFi themed objects. The first set of 4 was a solo show at Delta gallery Rotterdam.
Shipsection [2003]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood 185 x 195 x 16cm
(private collection Rotterdam, Netherlands)
The Shipsection bas-relief was based on the Costa Classica ship section. Follow this link to learn about its role in the demise of Camell Laird shipyard in Liverpool and about how it ended up in Rotterdam.:
The Costa Classica ship section
In 2002 Cammel Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead near Liverpool was building a 14 storey ship section to upgrade the Costa Classica cruise ship owned by Italian Costa Cruises. The almost 200 year old shipyard was famous in the seventies and eighties for building nuclear submarines. Contracts had dried up with the end of the Cold War, and they were looking for a way into the civilian market. This assignment looked like a promising start. When the Costa Classica was already on its way to Birkenhead to be cut in half, Costa Cruises was taken over by Carnival Cruises, an American firm. Carnival doesn’t do ship extensions, they just replace outdated ships. News reached the shipyard that the Costa Classica had made a U-turn and was now steaming back to Italy. The new owners said they had reports of faults in the section. Within months the shipyard was declared bankrupt and its workers were laid off.
www.telegraph.co.uk/…/The-straw-that-broke-Cammell.html
“The 14 storeys high section was bought by a consortium of Dutch investors. It was scrapped in Heijsehaven harbour in Rotterdam, just opposite my studio. My bas-relief was constructed while the original section was being dismantled. I even got to visit the section before they started. The only way in was to be hoisted on top of it by a tall crane. The upper decks were nearly finished, with spaces fitted as restaurants, a discotheque and a swimming pool. Lower down were hundreds of cabins and a fully equipped engine room – all brand new. It was an eerie experience.”
Image top: photo of the original section in the Heijsehaven by Ron van der Ende.
Photos taken during our visit to the section by Peter Breevoort.
These works were part of the Mobility exhibition at gallery Delta in 2003:
Fly Over [2002]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood 350 x 210 x 20cm
Built for Hogeschool Rotterdam (Rotterdam University)
The Fly Over was the first bas-relief that I made on commission. It was constructed for the auditorium of the new Economic Faculty in Rotterdam, part of Rotterdam University; A vast space with dark grey walls and bright red linoleum floors. The colour of the latter is echoed in the work as an incorporated red haze. The relief itself was based on photo’s of the large Kleinpolderplein stacked interchange in Rotterdam.
The Mobility show at gallery Delta with Hans sitting at his desk.
Fly Over was temporarily installed at the gallery for this occasion..
These works were part of the Mobility exhibition at gallery Delta in 2003:
Parkflat [2002]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 135 x 165 x 14
(Collection Museum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Photo: Theo van Pinxteren, Museum Rotterdam
The Parkflat under construction, 12 August 1957.
Photo by Herbert Behrens © Nationaal Archief
Parkflat, Rotterdam
The Parkflat apartment block is situated on the corner of Westzeedijk and Kievitslaan in Rotterdam, overlooking the park. Designed by E.F. Groosman, it was built between 1948 and 1958 as the first large residential building of Rotterdam’s postwar reconstruction period. The Parkflat contains 50 relatively luxurious apartments, even though the tower block was constructed in a modified version of the MUWI concrete panel system.
This building system was widely used for mass housing construction all around the Netherlands until it fell out of favour in the early 1970s.
(source: rotterdamwoont.nl/…/Parkflat)
(source: bestaandewoningbouw.nl/muwi)
Catalina (Flying Boat) [2002]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood 370 x 92 x 20cm
(private collection, Wassenaar, Netherlands)
Hans Sonnenberg taking notes. Delta Booth, Art Rotterdam, 2005.
These works were part of the Mobility exhibition at gallery Delta in 2003:
Plymouth Custom Suburban 1969 [2000]
Bas-relief in salvaged wood, 205 x 95 x 16cm
(collection of Van der Ende Steel Protection Innovators, Barendrecht, Netherlands)
Photo: Bob Goedewaagen
The first series of twelve bas reliefs were all cars: