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Acid pink. André van de Wijdeven had his sculpture for the sculpture gallery painted in that colour when it was returned. So that it looks as if a thick layer of sugar has been poured over the pistol, shiny and sweet. The barrel of the gun pointing upwards ends in the text 'I love JR', where 'love' is represented as a heart. But that there is something above it, you can only guess from the ground.

Van de Wijdeven found the line 'I love JR' years ago as graffiti on an overpass. The sculptor is from the generation that watched the famous American soap series Dallas. The series attracted him because the world was presented in an extremely comfortable way. You had the bad guy JR and Bobby the good guy. Beautifully clear. Because JR was the bad guy, you couldn't possibly love him. It is the contradiction in the graffiti line that moved Van de Wijdeven to make a sculpture with it. And he has accentuated this contradiction in his pedestal sculpture, for instance by the contrast in colour and form.

Although Van de Wijdeven's other sculptures are perhaps less recognisable, they all balance on the border between recognition and alienation. The forms, always worked out in detail, and the beautifully finished surfaces provide the initial attraction. After that, the ambiguities and contrasts keep you watching.
This also applies to the pedestal sculpture. There, moreover, the text contributes to the alienation. Or rather, a curious kind of datedness. For most young people will immediately understand the app language of the text, but they probably no longer know what or who JR is. While conversely, the Dallas generation does not always understand the app-language.