Page 90 - The 60.Venice Biennial & MoMA issue of WOA Contemporary Art magazine

CREATIVE LABORATORY FLIGHT, 2007 DIAMETER CORTEN STEEL 27X25 FT. | 8.2X7.6 M DIAMETER MARINER’S GATEWAY, 1986 PAINTED STEEL 35X34X1 FT | 10,6X 0.3X 20.9 M, DIAMETER 

ODE TO MILES, 2006 STAINLESS STEEL 180X96X84 IN, | 4.8X2.42X2,13 M. DEEP 
TRINITY, 2001 STAINLESS STEEL 26X24 FT. | 7.9X7.3 M, DIAMETER 
RED GATEWAY, 1986 DIAMETER PAINTED STAINLESS 13X16 FT. | 4X4.8 M DIAMETER 
STELLA IN THE WIND, 2007 BRONZE 12X15X15 FT. | 3.6X4.5X4.5 M. 

HANS VAN DE BOVENKAMP
Lives and works in Sagaponack, NY , United States of America
http://www.vandebovenkamp.com/

As the dictionary tells us, a Menhir is “an upright monumental (especially Brittany) suggests they were the primitive temples of a
stone” (“Menhir” in Breton means “long stone”). It can stand universal religion. Hans Van de Bovenkamp’s Menhirs are much more
alone, or together with other Menhirs, form a quasi-architectural artistically sophisticated than the prehistoric Menhirs, but they are
structure, sometimes circular, sometimes elliptical. The most also sacred markers, and universal in import. They are of bronze
famous Menhir formations are at Stonehenge, Avebury, and Carnac, and stainless steel rather than stone, and tend to be figure-size (or
where 2,935 megaliths are aligned in parallel rows. The meaning smaller) although “Entry,” 2002 is a gigantic portal into the beyond--
of these monuments, which were built in the Neolithic and Early and, more crucially, in constant, sinuous, dramatic movement. Unlike
Bronze Ages, is not entirely clear, but they were probably used for the pre-historic Menhirs, they are not static gestalts, but constructed
ritual processions. They are in effect sacred spaces, as the magical of parts that appear to be in motion, each conspicuously curved.
symbols carved on the undressed stone suggests. Indeed, the All have fluid edges. Thus, while monumental and abstract, like the
cross-cultural similarity of the symbols--megalithic monuments have prehistoric Menhir, they have a softer look. They are intimate rather
been found in Portugal and Spain, and along the Mediterranean than ominous, indeed, seductive rather than intimidating. Some have
coast, often associated with graves, as well as in England and France an affinity with the human body--with the dancing figure.

90 WORLD of ART