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hand

‘Hand’ : Gouda: 2021 Under the arches of the railway station in the city of Gouda there are four classical statues depicting the cities original crafts and trades. The statues are shown holding and handling goods. My proposal was to digitise one of the stone-carved hands and place it on the square in front of the station. The enlarged polygon hand would be cnc-milled and mounted on a facetted pedestal,

Maarten de Reus - projects

accolade

‘Accolade’ : Schiedam : 2019    The inhabitants of a neighbourhood in Schiedam wanted a to erect a sculpture to reflect their close-knit community. I designed an ‘accolade’. The initial sketches were passed through the ‘golden ratio’ to come to a fluent shape. The resulting sculpture consists of four curls: three curls along one plane, and the forth twisting along its vertical axis. ‘Accolade’ : Schiedam : 2019  The inhabitants of a

Maarten de Reus - projects

yawn

‘Yawn’ : Gapinge : 2019    The coat of arms of the small village of Gapinge depicts a ‘yawning knight’. The village is a place you travel through on the way from one larger city to the next. The community wanted a sculpture ‘for themselves’, not for the thousands passing through in the holiday season. The coat of arms was abstracted into an oval shape with a yawning ‘hole’. The

Maarten de Reus - projects

transformer

‘Transformer’ : Kaatsheuvel : 2016  A sculpture for the city of Kaatsheuvel. It was a funny affair. Right next to the brand new city hall a common transformer kiosk was sited. This was an accident. It was not planned, the developers of the place forgot to install the transformers inside the new building. Now it’s an eye-sore, a typical transformer-building straight from the catalogue. The brief for the artwork was

Maarten de Reus - projects

wheel

‘Wheel’ : Waalwijk : 2017  Right through the province of Brabant, a line can be seen. It’s straight as an arrow. It is a former railroad, made in the late 1800’s, to give local industry a boost by connecting this region to the port of Rotterdam. After years of decline, it recently became a scenic (albeit very straight) path for walking and biking. In 2015, I designed a large scale

Maarten de Reus - projects

beacon

‘Beacon’ : Emmeloord : 2010  A landmark north of Emmeloord in one of Holland’s main polders. Where now the polder is, there used to be the ‘Zuiderzee’, an inlet of the North Sea originally expanding into the heart of the Netherlands. In the middle ages primitive lighthouses were operated, consisting of no more than blunt stone elevations where a log-fire could be lighted on. The sculpture is a reference to

Maarten de Reus - projects

G.R.E.E.N.

‘Green’ : Barendrecht : 2002   This is a project for the city of Barendrecht. Always tricky, a roundabout… The site was near a development called ‘Carnisselande’. The artwork on the roundabout was supposed to deal with the phenomenon of environmental consciousness. The new suburb there was built in an ‘eco-friendly’ way. So, to ‘tell it like it is’, I came up with five huge botanical characters, five meters high,

Maarten de Reus - projects

boatshed

‘Boatshed’ : Burgum : 2016  The design for a sculpture to be placed next to an aqueduct close to the village of Burgum in Friesland. Hendrik Bulthuis lived in Burgum. He was a hairdresser and in his spare time he built sailing boats in the shed behind his house. Two of these boats, the ‘BM’ and the ‘16m2’, became famous ‘build-it-yourself’ boats and are now Classes in the world of

Maarten de Reus - projects

tiletunnels

‘Tiletunnels’ : Leeuwarden : 2014   Three tile-works in the city of Leeuwarden. They are situated in underpasses under the newly built motorways leading into the city centre. The narrow underpasses are for bicycles only. All three tile-works emphasise a characteristic that is present at each location. This way they are not a mere fantasy of an artist, but an acceleration of a natural phenomenon that one could see at

Maarten de Reus - projects

heraldry

‘Heraldry’ : Helmond : 2013  A design for a large scale sculpture for the city of Helmond. The location was the city-square in front of the railway station, which is a busy transport intersection. In the archive of the city I came upon the ‘coat of arms of Helmond’ and found something peculiar. The arms of the city consist of a helmet with three oak branches and on one of