Lon Pennock, 'Intersection', 1996

Location: Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

'The forms that appear in the world - the monumental form of an airplane, the blocks of basalt of a pier or of a bridge construction - for me they have more to do with sculpture than the objects classified as art at the academy. They are forms made by people, but without the pretense of being works of art. They are immutable and have a natural presence.'

This is the vision of artist Lon Pennock (b. 1945), creator of the pedestal sculpture “Intersection.

The sculpture consists of two L-shaped beams, according to Pennock, a crucifix with shifted axes and a twisted heart. The sculpture appears to be a smaller representation of his characteristic work. That is large in scale and has the appearance of an industrial construction due to color and material. Examples include 'Intersection' in Kijkduin, two more than man-sized Corten steel rectangles, and the two meter-high pillars 'The River' placed on the Blaak in Rotterdam in 1984.

Although Pennock was trained in the figurative tradition in the 1960s, his work soon developed into “concrete art. The artist, former director of the Rotterdam Art Academy and a consultant in urban planning and related fields, devoted himself throughout his career to a careful examination of material and how the sculpture related to its surroundings.

Pennock was not in favor of a sculpture standing on a pedestal. It would create distance. “You should be able to trip over them,” was his motto. Because the pedestal is the binding factor in Struycken's project and fits within an urban planning vision, Pennock overcame his objection.