Winner design competition for a monumental artwork at Tienen
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The sculpture links to the favourite dialect sentence of Tienen "Spaile bé de maais oep de braai van't kottegoar", translated "Playing with the marbles on the pavement in front of the jailhouse".The sculpture symbolizes that our dialect of Tienen is still very much alive.
As a language is only really alive when it is still spoken, so the sculpture lives by the movements of the boy who bends through his knees to throw the marble.
Through its shape, the artwork reminisces of the present (modern tight lines) and the past (knee trousers, subject: to play with the marbles). The work has been inspired by futurism.
Futurism developed out of cubism, and is characterized by the dynamics of movement.
Futurism wants to express the speed and movement of the modern technological society by an unpredictable, rhythmical, frequently geometrical intertwinement of lines, colours and areas. Traditional rules were avoided, even rejected. The cubistic shape 'language' appealed to the futurists, however, because they were able to achieve the illusion of movement, thanks to those shard-shapes.
Movement in the sculpture is suggested by fixing successive moments at the same time within the composition.
Movement is expressed by rhythmic recurrences of shapes and lines.
"Everything moves, hastens, CHANGES rapidly. A profile is never tranquil to our eye, but appears and disappears continuously… Moving objects multiply, change shape in the meantime, as turbulent VIBRATIONS. For this reason the boy who plays with the marbles has three heads, six arms....." Umberto Boccioni 1910
Playing with the marbles is of all times and cultures and accessible for all layers of the population. That's why Daniel also wanted to render the sculpture as timeless.
Working method
To realize his sculptures, Daniel has his own working method. During several days, sometimes weeks, Daniel builds his own "world" around the sculpture.As a last step of the preparation he frequently uses his camera and makes "collages" of the subject. Outline shapes and negative spaces play an important role. In the work "Spaile bé de maais oep de braai van't kottegoar" his son Jano posed as a model. The creation of the artwork itself is accomplished in a short, powerful, expressive and harsh manner. Only by working in this way can the feelings be preserved in the artwork.
Contact form - Daniel De Ruyter - Zegestraat 45 - 3300 Tienen - Belgium - info@artistgallery45.com
