Tuesday, July 31, 2012

De aardappelmannetjes

I found a fun piece of art the other day. Next to the train station in Zoetermeer (in the Netherlands) is a stone statue that is called 'De Aardappelmannetjes', which can be translated as 'the potato guys':




This statue is made by Joost van den Toorn, a Dutch artist and was installed in 2008. It is made with 3 huge boulders from Denmark, is more than 8 meters in height (about 26 feet) and the eyes, nose and mouths are made of gold leaf.



16 comments:

  1. Wat ziet dat er leuk uit, en enorm groot ook trouwens!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ja, het is enorm, zeker als je er naast staat!

      Delete
  2. I wonder if they are connected in some way or just balanced?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't really find any details about how they are connected (i'm sure they are). I did find that the statue is anchored underground, to make sure it won't tumble over ;).

      Delete
  3. You have an amazing knack of finding really interesting statues. Love this one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Leanne :-). The fun thing is that this statue was already there when I still lived in Holland and I think I must have passed it once or twice, but I never noticed it....

      Delete
  4. how weird is that!
    any particular reason its there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny, eh? The city of Zoetermeer bought it years ago, to cheer up area :-)

      Delete
  5. Cool statue Nellies, oooh but look at all those bikes!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are probably not allowed to park their bikes there :-) And this is just a small amount of bikes, there are many more in the bike parking area :-) Too bad I didn't photograph that! Maybe next time...

      Delete
  6. How brilliant, I love it. Public art can be amusing and lighten your day too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nou dat is wel bijzonder, hoe kom je op het idee om een aardappel als inspiratie te gebruiken.
    Was je gisteren trouwens in Amsterdam? Hubby SC hoorde iemand in het voorbijgaan over 100% reisgidsen praten...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Strange meeting...
    :-)
    Best regards from Paris,

    Pierre

    ReplyDelete
  9. I bet the artist fees were not as much fun as his work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I read somewhere that the City of Zoetermeer paid him 100.000 euros for work.

      Delete
  10. Wow that statue is Huge! and impressive! I see why its called Potato Man! The gold is soo "gold"!
    Funny how I would be scared that it could tumble over!!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your comments, it is very much appreciated! (even though I do not always have time to thank you).
Whenever you have questions I always try to answer them in the comments.
Have a great day!