Period: 2019
|nl| |en|
Miniature of the sculpture Life, height 30 cm. This miniature is for sale. Look at the bottom of this page for more information.
Van de Wal made the work Leven (Life) (# 501a and b) for the Between project in the Sint Maartenskerk in Zaltbommel, June 2019. In this work Van de Wal portrays life and death. Life and death that are inextricably linked together merge into one form.
Project Between
Project Between took place from 14 June to 1 September 2019 in the Sint Maartenskerk in Zaltbommel and is an initiative of visual artist Maria van Gerwen. “When Maria asked me to participate in this project, I first thought that the church building itself was beautiful enough, why did something have to be added to it, and I did not feel called because I am not a believer. In the second instance I thought of it I believe that the church and laterally also faith played a role in my life: Mary with child and even more so the cross symbol have been given a meaning.
Motivation at work
Between. Between light and dark, silence and sound, lightness and heaviness, inside and outside, life and death. The church, the building, the space, the faith. The story of the 3 living and the three dead, the death dance.
“I was born in a Brabant village. I was baptized and did my Holy Communion, received the Holy Confirmation, and attended church every Saturday until mid-teens. Yet faith does not play a role for me. I am not a believer, not then, not now. Over the years I have often been in churches, at weddings and funerals. When I see a church I want to walk in. Not for the faith. Well for the building, the silence, the peace. The church visits have ensured that the church with its symbols, not the faith, have acquired a meaning.
My starting point in the Between project is life and death. The beginning and end of our lives. In one form I capture two symbols: 1) the Madonna (Mary with child), which in this image symbolizes birth, life and 2) the cross shape, which in this image symbolizes death. Life and death are inextricably linked, both in our existence and in this form. The shape can be seen in two places in the church. Inconspicuous, painted on panel, placed in a niche of a pillar, as if it has been witnessed here for centuries of what happened here (right photo). But also as a sculpture of 4 meters high, placed on the choir church, asking for attention. This form represents the present time, a society full of images and stimuli, with a constant struggle for attention, in which enough often seems to be not enough (left photo).
The title Life refers to life itself. The moment or space between birth and death. We also see that space in this form. An empty space that you fill in yourself, just like you have to do with your own life.
Information about the work
Title: Leven (Life)
#501a
400 x 280 cm x 8 cm
XPS, metalstud, wood, newsprint and acrylic paint
#501b
± 57 x 40 cm
Acrylic on panel
Miniature S O L D O U T
The small version of this sculpture is for sale. Send an e-mail to info@keesvandewal.nl for more information.
Title: Life
Number: # 501c
Dimensions: 30 x 21 x 3.6 cm
Material: MDF, acrylic paint.