ROMBOUSTE & DROSTE, 9 Bruggen / 9 Bridges (2001). Amsterdam (The Netherlands)


The Netherlands (Amsterdam)

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The nine bridges are each composed of letters which together form a word. The language used is conceived of as an extension of the world of things, as a bridge to the world of the mind. Rombouts and Droste designed an alphabet in which the evolution of pictorial language into abstract signs has been reversed. Their letters issue from the same source that langage draws on when onomatopoeias ensue, words like moo and hiss whose sound betrays their meaning. The shape of a letter is determined by the intuitive meaning that they attribute to it. That meaning arises by association the letter with words that begin with that particular letter. In their alphabet the "a", for instance, is written as an angular section of line in aquamarine, the "b" as a wine-coloured heraldic "label" (bordeauxrode barensteel) and the "c" as a lemon-yellow (citroengele) curve. The letters are combined to form a word on the basis of this alphabet and present a pictorial language that relates to reality along poetic lines, although the adjectival colours have not been adhered to.

A commission of the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst in partnership with the Grondbedrijf Amsterdam.


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