A pair of stepladders isn’t the most obvious choice of inspiration for an art installation, but the chaps from Studio Bertjan Pot like to work with what they have, and at the time of the conception of Stairway to Heaven, that was what happened to be around. That and some carnival lights that were knocking about from another project. The two seemed made for each other; industrial steel meets glittering glass, and hey presto.
Never ones to let an opportunity to mess with convention slide by, SBP turned the whole thing on its head, suspending the ladders from the ceiling of Grandcafé Wennekerpand in Schiedam, Holland. The café is not short of artistic attractions, hosting as it does a melting glitterball piece by recently featured artist collective Rotganzen, and well-designed interior furnishings from which to admire the surroundings and enjoy a coffee.
The café itself is housed within the larger Wennekerpand, which might be described as the artistic equivalent of a shopping centre, with a theatre school, dance studio, and indie cinema among the list of venues handily located under one roof. Beats the Fishergate in Preston for culture, that’s for sure.
