Hans van Bentem, 'Space Duck Racer', 2011

Hans van Bentem, Space Duck Racer, 2011
Location: Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

"This one's for us!" This was exclaimed by an ADO supporter shortly after Space Duck Racer was installed in front of the Bijenkorf in The Hague on January 13, 2011. The enthusiastic football fan undoubtedly saw a strong resemblance between the colors of the sculpture and the green and yellow club colors of ADO. The creator of the sculpture, Hans van Bentem (1965), was pleased with this warm reception of his space duck. The duck, wearing glasses and a helmet, rides a small cart from which flames burst forth, speeding towards the sky with dizzying speed.

Van Bentem seems to have created a three-dimensional comic character with his sculpture, which is typical of this artist. He once made and painted his own skateboards, and now he is fascinated by popular visual culture, including street art and expressions of subcultures. His racing space duck could have stepped out of a quirky science fiction comic. Yet, he executes his creation in ceramic, a material used by humans for thousands of years. The past is his second muse. The artist often uses traditional materials and draws from art history, old stories, and symbols.

Van Bentem’s sculptures often contain hidden meanings. Sometimes these are symbolic, as with his works for the Shri Vishnu School, which refer to Hindu gods. At other times, they are socially critical, such as his ceramic rockets painted with ancient Asian motifs, which he exhibited in Beijing in 2009.

However, with Van Bentem, it is not always immediately clear how form and content relate. With his bespectacled duck, he aimed to create "a nice, fresh image" that manages to hold its own in the old city center with its busy traffic and numerous impressions. During the design process, Van Bentem thought about the visual language of gambling halls and fruit machines. The result is an amazing pedestal sculpture that manages to cut through the urban chaos. As it races, the duck almost veers off course: its wheels stay neatly within the pedestal.