Artwork Data

Title

Vijf geknikte driehoekvormig gelede buizen

Artist

Bernard Olsthoorn

Year

1983

Material

roestvast staal

Dimensions

h. 300 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Houtwijklaan, Den Haag

City district

Loosduinen

GPS data

52.056598943014, 4.2501607433776 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

They stand far apart. This creates the impression that the two parts of Bernard Olsthoorn's object 'Five bent tubes' in the central reservation of Houtwijklaan are independent works of art. That is not the case. Despite the distance, they form a whole. The observant viewer, who has walked or driven along both sides, will have noticed that the objects are identical, although there is some mirroring.

Both parts of Olsthorn's work of art are composed of five triangular stainless steel pipes with a length of 15 metres. Each consists of ten equal segments. The space between the tubes is always exactly the same. One of the five tubes stands with two equal 'legs' of five segments firmly in the grass. There, the hinge is exactly in the middle. On the next tube, the hinge is after four segments, on the next after three, and so on. As a result, the tubes become shorter and shorter on one side and longer and longer on the other. To the eye, an isosceles triangle becomes a triangle with unequal sides.

Olsthoorn constructed a mathematical piece of art of perfect precision. It is his trademark: designing monumental works of art in a purely constructivist visual language, with geometry and geometry as the starting point. His objects often show a development or change in shape. A square becomes an irregular octagon and in 'Five bent tubes', an isosceles triangle becomes a series of sharp triangles. These are repetitive, austere forms with which Olsthoorn does something unexpected. This ensures that his sculptures are never boring. His The Hague sculpture is dynamic because one side of the triangle appears to be moving further and further away. The tubes look like five enormous, abstracted plant stems or tree trunks that a storm has raged over, causing them to snap, each at a different point.

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