Time (2020) Milou van Ham

photo Max Dereta
About the artwork

Commissioned by JD Sports, Mei architects and planners renovated the shop on the corner of Lijnbaan and Van Oldenbarneveltplaats. The building is part of the Lijnbaan complex, which became a National Monument in 2010. The starting point of the renovation was to bring it back to the time layer (the historical image) of 1955. This meant that a new facade artwork had to be made as well, in reference to the original that was lost in the 1970s. Artist Milou van Ham was asked to design the artwork. The restoration of this monument for the future gave her the idea to use time as a theme. Work Time consists of sixteen glass appliqué panels with lines that run parallel to the clockwise (0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 or 180 degrees). Each panel features a large four-letter word and one or more stanzas of a poem. From the enormous archive of 50 years of Poetry International, Tsead Bruinja (poet laureate 2019-2020) and Van Ham selected the sixteen stanzas or poems, which are about time. The glass is composed of twenty green, blue and gray shades in different transparencies. Time is a building-related work of art.

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About the artist

Milou van Ham (Berkel-Enschot, 1964) studied at the University of Amsterdam, among others. Van Ham's work always has to do with other people, at least with what is between people. She makes location-specific artworks in public spaces. In terms of form and content, a Van Ham is integrated in the context of the location. Language and image, communication and interaction form the basis of every end product. Every work of art comes about through close collaboration with users, client and / or architect, other creatives and producers.

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