TSHP PSHT

About this artwork.

At the same time as beginning renovation at the Selwerd sewage pumping station, the municipality of Groningen commissioned a work of art as well. The brief was to give the building a more expressive appearance and to demonstrate on the outside what was happening on the inside. 

Artist Ingeborg Entrop made the sound of the pumps in the building visible through her work by applying the words TSHP (sucking in) and PSHT (pouring out) in black and white on to the roof. Entrop: “In my design, I made the underground, invisible pump sound visible by translating it into letters. I then ‘pumped’ this written sound from the basement to the highest point of the building, on to the roof. Vertical lines have been applied to the side walls, the width and colour of which are determined by the letter pattern on the roof. In order to be able to fully read the work, you will also have to get yourself, as a spectator, higher, you’ll have to ‘pump up’. You can do this, for example, by climbing the stairs of the nearby Noorderstation. Or virtually, via the imagination or – soon – via satellite images on the Internet.”"

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Ingeborg Entrop

• District
  Selwerd

• Year of creation
  2012

• Art type
  Design, Art in / on a building

• Material
  Paint, Bitumen, Foil

• Dimensions
  h 4,40x b 8,40 x d 9,30 m