The Embrace

Photography Jeroen Musch

Studio Job unveiled their latest artwork, a spectacular thirteen-metre-high bronze and glass sculpture for Foundation KunstKerk (Art Church) in historic Dordrecht. » The Embrace « took five years to create, with over two years being handcrafted in Studio Job’s atelier in the Netherlands. Enveloping the façade of the new art institute, Studio Job has created a modern surrealist take on classical church windows, that dramatically curve towards each other creating a physical ‘embrace’. The striking imagery is set into in a casted bronze frame structure atop bronze turtles with a two-metre screaming polished bronze cockerel on the pinnacle. The unveiling event took place on 9th September.

Dutch Foundation Kunstkerk asked Job Smeets to create a monumental artwork for the newly launched creative space ‘KunstKerk’ in the historic town of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. Along with architect Andries Lugten, Foundation Kunstkerk turned the unused church building into a walkthrough to link two new creative spaces, commissioning Studio Job to create a landmark sculpture for the back of the building. Job’s idea was to create the ‘back’ as the front giving it equal or more importance thus changing the whole use of the building. “from Job’s idea, we worked together for an intense moment from which the current concept emerged” explains architect Andries Lugten “a free-standing work of art in form of a façade.”

“My initial sketches started off as interpretation of the shapes of front facade, but over time it evolved into a composition that is about storytelling, our everyday life, about holding on to one another whilst the cockerel above freaks out. I wanted to portray shelter and togetherness with the form. Our decision to have glass drawings facing outwards instead of inwards was important to make it visible to everyone passing” explains Job Smeets, “It’s where art meets craft, and religion meets architecture.”