Hans van Eerd

'A symbiosis' 2001

Location: on floor 1 of W-Laag, near the passage to the W-Hal.

As a child Van Eerd models in marzipan –his father was a baker- and in the boy scouts he carves totem poles and medals of wood. Van Eerd attends a night course in sculpting at the Academy of Industrial Design in Eindhoven, the Academy of Visual Art in Tilburg (graduated in 1972) and subsequently the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Apart from creating his own designs and accepting commissions, he teaches for many years.

Initially Van Eerd makes bronze sculptures, after which follow abstract shapes, based on the collection of skulls and bones that he started collecting as a child from the aviary at home. In the late 1970s he changes to modeling, later making small sculptures of sheet steel. "Those figures were too successful" says Van Eerd, "it became a trick. That is why I stopped it after two years".

As of the 1980s the theme 'Traveling in time and space' runs through a lot of his work, referring to the Egyptian, Etruscan or classical mythology. They are often creatures with insect-like thin legs, bird-like heads and hominoid bodies, made of natural materials: wood, paper or leather. The sizes vary from small to monumental.

In 1999 Van Eerd stops teaching at the Art Academy. Van Eerd: "I was given more and more management tasks and all that I saw was heads and gesticulating hands. These I incorporated into new sculptures. The heads are resting on tables; they have no ears, for they only hear themselves."

The stairs in the sculpture 'Symbiosis' represent the two worlds that merge in BMT: the technical science of the TU/e and medicine and health sciences of the University of Maastricht. From that symbiosis BMT is developing new solutions to problems in the human body. The seven steps represent the departments of BMT, two from Maastricht and five from Eindhoven. The molecules, the spheres on the stairs on the right, symbolize the technology of biomolecular engineering, on which BMT focuses in particular.

Eindhoven still possesses some sculptures by Van Eerd, such as the Hercules Monument at Welschap and the monument for Amnesty International at Wilhelminaplein. He is also involved in the establishment of artists’ workshop Beeldenstorm, which has been located in the TU/e grounds for some years now.

Sculptures

Hans van Eerd