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They seem to want to embrace the void. Sculptor Michael Jacklin makes sculptures from strip iron. Since 2005, he has strikingly often used the box form. Due to the use of open grid patterns, the boxes are transparent and airy, even when a dense net of lines has been woven from various layers of strip iron.

Within his oeuvre there are also sculptures that less clearly enclose an imaginary volume. Such as Jacklin's pedestal sculpture from 1993. In this iron construction in the centre of The Hague, the accent is on the spatial effect of the object itself and the balance between the components. Six rectangular and two oval frames lean against each other. The frames derive their solidity from cross connections in different patterns. Jacklin's fascination with industrial iron structures from architecture and bridge building is expressed here. The sculpture is reminiscent of a three-dimensional collage of various bridge components.

Iron is the material Jacklin works with. He has been doing so since 1984. In 1986 he made a sculpture of bent bands of iron that bears the lyrical title 'Hidden among the clouds'. With its round, soft shapes it also looks like a cloud. In the early nineties, his style became more rigid. Abstract constructions, such as the pedestal sculpture, made their appearance. They announced a simplification that (for the time being) culminated in the boxes of banded iron. This simplicity tends towards the minimalism of sculptors like Donald Judd (1928-1994) and Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). Jacklin feels akin to them, because they too attached great importance to research into materials and form. But there is an essential difference. While the Minimalists often have others execute their conceptual art, Jacklin's work is strongly influenced by human measurements, intuition and ideas during the actual realisation of his art. Jacklin constructs all his sculptures himself, as he says, 'in collaboration with the materials'.