Pendulum (III)

(Text provided by Gijs Assmann)

Pendulum (III) was placed as a farewell symbol for Professor Dr.Willy Spaan. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leiden University Medical Center, retires from professional life.

The sculpture is a curved play of lines cast in stainless steel, two meters high. The colors and shapes of its surroundings are reflected in its highly polished surface .

The design of Pendulum (III) is based on both a line drawing of a human being and the structural forms of enzymes.
Thus, the sculpture visualizes two important aspects of Professor Dr. Willy Spaan’s professional life – both his work as Chairman of the Board, in which the human measure is always central, and his work as Emeritus Professor of Fundamentelle Virology.
Pendulum (III) literally corresponds to the actual human scale and gives the impression of an advancing person in the form of a curved three-dimensional pastiche on Nu descendant un escalier no 2 (1912) by Marcel Duchamp.

Pendulum (III), however, is also reminiscent of molecular structures, enzyme structures, or structures of proteins. For the study of proteins and their specific properties, fundamental and clinical knowledge of their structures is essential. Proteins play an important role in the many complex processes of the human body. In the design of Pendulum (III), I refer to these structures in a playful associative way.

I am particularly interested in the dynamics and movement of these structures. As a sculptor, I am fascinated by the influence of gravity and thus always the question of balance in a sculpture itself.
Pendulum (III), as a kind of still life, seems to defy gravity through its light, moving and lively atmosphere, thus achieving a balance between contradictory forces.

This “balance” can be read as an abstract principle but also interpreted as a metaphor itself. In this context, balance can also be of intellectual or emotional significance. My aspiration was to visualize the terms ‘ connection” and ” together” – concepts that Prof. Dr. Willy Spaan mentioned as important elements for a farewell picture, in this work. Pendulum (III) refers in an associative way to medical and biochemical science and reflects concepts like transparency, flexibility and balance in a joyful, pleasant and optimistic way.