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Roland de Jong-Orlando Re-Nature aspen ‘The Universe, the Book of Nature, is written in the language of mathematics, and the text is made up of triangles, circles and other figures, without whose help it would be impossible to understand so much as a word.’ I often refer to this quote from Galileo to indicate my ideas about geometric forms. For me, there is no strict division between these forms and forms in nature. The one is directly related to the other. The sculpture I made during this symposium is an example of this idea, The title, ‘Re-Nature’, indicates that I am involved in ‘recreating’ nature, that I give it back its geometric forms. I make visible the structure that is already there: order on the one hand and whimsical forms on the other. The sculpture is made from two tree trunks, each four meters long and about 45 centimeters in diameter. I systematically divided one of the trunks into twelve sections of the same shape, all sawn at an angle of 30˚. The pieces were then reassembled in a new way and attached to the other trunk, forming a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. This constructive way of thinking and working is essential to all of my sculptures. The means by which the segments are fixed together, with the threaded rod and nuts intentionally left visible, accentuates the connections as a reflection of the constructive process. In all my sculptures, I find it important that the final result, despite the systematic, orderly construction, still has something playful about it. With ‘Re-Nature’, I think I have succeeded, partly by what seems like an almost careless way that the sculpture is placed in the landscape. It has turned out to be a cheerful sculpture, one that brings a smile. |