Michael Jacklin, (no title), 1993

Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

They seem to want to embrace the void. Sculptor Michael Jacklin (1956) makes sculptures of strip iron. In doing so, he has remarkably often used the box form since 2005. Because of the use of open grid patterns, the boxes are transparent and airy, even when a dense net of lines is woven from several layers of strip iron.

Within his oeuvre, there are also sculptures that less obviously enclose an imaginary volume. Like Jacklin's 1993 pedestal sculpture. The iron construction in the center of The Hague emphasizes the spatial effect of the object itself and the balance between its parts. Six rectangular and two oval frameworks lean against each other. The frameworks derive their strength from cross connections in different patterns. Jacklin's fascination with industrial structures made of iron from architecture and bridge building is expressed here. The sculpture is reminiscent of a three-dimensional collage of various bridge components.

Iron is the material Jacklin works with. He has been doing so since 1984. In 1986, he created a sculpture of curved bands of iron that bears the lyrical title “Hidden among the clouds. With its round, soft shapes, it also looks something like a cloud. In the early 1990s, his style tightened. Abstract constructions, such as the pedestal sculpture made their appearance. They heralded a simplification that culminated (for now) in the boxes of tire iron. This simplicity tended toward the minimalism of sculptors such as Donald Judd (1928-1994) and Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). Jacklin feels akin to them because they, too, placed great importance on material and form research. But there is an essential difference. While the minimalists often have their conceptual art executed by others, with Jacklin, human scale, intuition and incursions play a strong role during the actual realization of his art. Jacklin, as he himself says “in collaboration with the materials,” constructs all of his sculptures himself.