Two Lamps
These two gigantic lamps are a wonderful sight. It looks like the lamps have escaped from the desks of one of the many offices in the area. But those who walk, bike or sail by will quickly realise that they are not real lamps but flat drawings; simplified images of lamps created using lines of light.
In Two Lamps, Henneman has merged object and drawing, as is typical of ‘standing drawings’. He makes spatial objects from drawings by placing them upright and ensuring that the air, and not the paper, is the carrier of the lines. Since the two lamps are covered in a special foil, the sculptures take on two different roles in a 24-hour period: they appear as graphic, white drawings during the day and as silhouettes of light at night.
It’s not surprising that Henneman chose to enlarge ordinary desk lamps into this monumental artwork. He sees beauty and even poetry in everyday objects that we might not even notice including a box, a pair of scissors, a stack of paper and a pencil. He takes them out of their context, brings them back to their essence, and it’s hard to look at them in the same way. Henneman’s artwork reminds us of the importance of something as simple as a desk lamp: it ensures that we can work, read a book, or play a game wherever and whenever we want… What would we do without it?
