Evolution
Tarry! For whither away? Thy heaven lies within; To seek it elsewhere leads to folly and to sin
Angelus Silesius
length 550 cm
The idea for the artwork Evolution arose from a call to local artists by the housing association De Alliantie Flevoland to design an artwork for the Stadswerfpark of Almere Haven. The intended location was an empty concrete basin that regularly filled up with rainwater and waste. Once a fountain had been planned there, but for technical reasons it was never realised.
The choice fell on my design for the artwork Evolution – a seven-metre-long crocodile made of ceramics, lying and sleeping under a pavilion planted with flowering climbing plants.
Because the Stadswerfpark used to have a rather sad, desolate appearance, I wanted to create something that would beautify the place. A work of art that would attract both adults and children and brighten up the square – something to look at, to dream about and to come back to.
Together with the helping hands of a good friend, the crocodile, which was eight metres long at the beginning, was created in my studio from almost a tonne of earthenware clay over the course of two intensive weeks of work. With the help of strong cutting wire we then divided it into about 30 large puzzle pieces and hollowed them out. Afterwards the detail work followed with the scales and so on.
After a drying period of three weeks, the parts were baked at 1150 degrees. Then the puzzle pieces were glazed and baked a second time at a temperature of 1050 degrees.
As a base for the crocodile, a round foundation of granite was placed into the previously empty concrete basin at Stadswerfpark. Piece by piece we filled the parts of the crocodile with concrete, put the puzzle back together and fixed the parts to the foundation with strong assembly kit. Then the joints were filled and after drying the crocodile was both waterproof and stable enough to sit and balance on it.
For the pavilion, the old concrete pool served as the foundation. Ten arches of steel were cross-welded together and reinforced. In the four corners of the concrete basin, holes were drilled for water drainage. Then the corners were filled with earth and planted with climbing plants.
On 7 June 2011, the official inauguration of the artwork took place, popularly renamed “Crocodile in Stadswerfpark”: A sleeping crocodile under a sky of flowers as a symbol of change and transformation for the old neighbourhoods of Almere Haven, where the city begun to develop.