Searching for toy cranes. Photo: Eric van Straaten

​In December 2002 I did this temporary urban intervention in De Strip Westwijk- a suburb of Vlaardingen- a town near Rotterdam, Holland (Jeanne van Heeswijk). It was part of a much bigger regeneration project that centred on a row of empty shops. These had been temporarily handed over to artists and the outreach program of the art museum Boymans. In one of the empty shops I had an exhibition with fellow artist Eric van Straaten. It was conditional that we also had to involve the people who lived in the area. The shops were on the ground floor of a tower block above which lived the community we were supposed to be working with. As is often the way and probably understandably, the community were reluctant to get involved. There was no budget for this part of the project as most of it had been spent transporting the work over to Holland for the exhibition. I devised this project to convince people to be involved that literally went door to door. (link to info on related publication here).

The toy crane I had as a child. (Meccano Jumbo crane)

​When I was a child I used to like playing with a toy crane. The string that held the hook had been extended and was exceptionally long. I enjoyed unwinding the string down through a gap in between the banister rails in my parent’s house. The hook went all the way from the landing down to the floor of the hallway. I was fascinated by this simple concept of being physically connected to another place.

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Sketch for my proposal

I had ten toy cranes each fixed to its own little shelf. Myself and Eric van Straaten went door to door visiting each flat and asked if we could fix the shelf outside the window or balcony so that it protruded out from the building. Each toy crane had a ball of string attached to the end of it's jib. There was a long canopy that exteneded out from the building that made up the roof of the row of shops below. I dropped the balls of string from each crane onto here. I climbed out of a window to gain access to this area and looped the end of each string around one of the many flag poles that decorated the front of the building.. The strings dropped down from the flag poles to end just above head height on the main thoroughfare in front of the shops. On the end of each string was tied a photograph of the toy crane, fixed to the side of the building.high above.      

All Photos: Eric Van Straaten

Toy crane attached to the side of the building outside somebodies bedroom window

The photograph of the toy crane hanging at street level.

A selection of photographs
                and photographs
                   of photographs 

Cheap plastic crane manageing to look quite dramatic so high up.

An early image with a simple eyelet through it.

The boy eventually got to keep the toy crane

The final images were screwed onto pieces of wood when they hung in street. The white 'goo' was 'No Nails', which wasn't such a good idea. It's a water based product and a rain shower unstuck one or two of the shelves before they had a chance to dry.