Untitled

About this artwork.

When designing the courtyard of the Red Orphanage complex, Ronald van Tienhoven installed a number of objects that reference both the spatial position and the historical significance of this place. 
 
Standing on their plinths, two bronze orphans form the beginning and end of a diagonal line along which a maypole and a time-temperature table have been installed. 32 compasses have been placed between the tiles, indicating the position of the courtyard within the structure of the city of Groningen, but also its position in the world. The compasses are housed in aluminium boxes of which the deep red tops also form the nodes of the paving pattern. 
 
The maypole is placed in a deep red cylinder, which is surrounded by a teak, round bench. With this, Van Tienhoven wanted to compensate for the total absence of monumental greenery, which is common in many other old courtyards.
 
The so-called time-temperature table, with a built-in digital time and temperature system, is a modern translation of the traditional sundial. Or, as the artist himself says: “As the church towers are like giant architectural sensors of place and time for the city, the time-temperature table is a functional furniture for the microstructure of the courtyard". 
 
The bronze statuettes on aluminium plinths mentioned above are casts of the stone statuettes of two orphans on the 17th century entrance gate. They emphasise the historical dimension and former use of these buildings is.
 
To complete the ensemble, Van Tienhoven placed so-called English park benches between the courtyard and the “circulation” along the buildings.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Ronald van Tienhoven

• District
  Centrum

• Year of creation
  1994

• Art type
  Art in the road surface, floor or ground

• Material
  Diverse materials