PRECIPITATION
Entry for the IJSSELBIENNALE edition 2017
The theme of IJssel Biennale 2017 was ‘climatic changes’.

Here in the Netherlands, we notice climate change mainly through changes in the nature and quantity of precipitation, a great deal at once or, on the contrary, prolonged drought.
Our landscape has been shaped in a natural way by earlier (naturally caused) climate changes, the ice ages. Precipitation in all its forms is always the shaping force of the landscape, with the moraines, glacial basins, the river delta, river dunes, basins and breakthrough holes. Current climate change is attributed to human influences. The high-water channel in the IJssel valley is (one of ours) a reaction(s) to this climate change and a drastic change in the landscape has also arisen as a result of our actions.

The IJsselbiennale coincides with the summer months, the period in which we seem to notice the effects of climate change most strongly. It is raining more heavily and with larger amounts at once, the temperature is extreme and we expect to have longer periods of drought as in the summer of 2018.

Together with the remainder of the Werverdijk, the Kromme Kolk forms the pièce de résistance of the Veessen Wapenveld flood channel. As a ‘waking eye’ it directs our gaze in a southerly direction and shows at a glance how the IJssel valley lies enclosed between the moraines of the Veluwe and Salland. In the same direction we see the Veessen Wapenveld high-water channel wedged between two dikes.

A flat, shallow steel shell floats like a dot on the water of the Kromme Kolk. Rainwater is collected, gradually filling the shell with precipitation until it floods. During longer droughts the water evaporates and the water level in the bowl shrinks. Occasionally it falls completely dry. Under the influence of sediment present in the water in combination with corrosion on the steel, the retreating water will form graphical patterns and concentric line drawings.