Arjanne van der Spek, 'Yesterday Stands, Morning Dawn', 2005

A streetlamp with a globe lamp on top of a pile of construction materials roughly describes the pedestal sculpture by artist Arjanne van der Spek (1958). In the title 'Yesterday Stands, Morning Dawn', she has incorporated a play on words that refers to the inspiration for her artwork. Morning Dawn is one of the neighborhoods in The Hague that Van der Spek explored in search of ordinary everyday objects for her piece. She aimed to bring elements representative of the neighborhood to the center of The Hague, presumably to shift the focus from the always spotlighted center to the periphery.

Thus, the sculpture was created, consisting of a heap of sand, a stack of stones, and a typical 1970s streetlamp. Van der Spek first sculpted the entire piece and then cast it in concrete with sand-colored pigment. What stands out is the unusually large size of the stones. Also notable are the red seals or medals applied here and there on the sculpture, referencing the red lanterns in the Chinese restaurant in The Hague where Van der Spek’s idea took shape.

With its rough surface and seemingly haphazardly assembled elements, 'Yesterday Stands, Morning Dawn' is an example of Van der Spek's unrefined art. Her sculptures emerge intuitively from a deeply rooted sculptor's instinct. However, unlike the piece in the center of The Hague, her art is usually non-representational. Abstract or figurative: both are difficult to categorize. For Van der Spek, what is paramount is: '[...] that you show something strange that still makes sense. I actually try to create something you have never seen before using very ordinary means.'* And that is precisely what she has achieved with 'Yesterday Stands, Morning Dawn'.

* Quote from the foreword by Franz Kaizer in: ‘Twelve Sculptures by Arjanne van der Spek/Galerie Tanja Rumpff', Haarlem, 1992.