Honderdjarige herdenking van de geboorte van Willem van Oranje 1933 1933

Oswald Wenckebach crafted this medal in 1933 to commemorate the centennial of Willem van Oranje's birth, using I guess a mold of some kind to produce the image. What strikes me is the pose of the figure. Kneeling, head bowed - a posture of supplication, or maybe deep reflection. Look closely, and you will see the texture of the metal has a kind of granular feel. The light catches these tiny imperfections, adding depth to the figure. I'm drawn to the area around the hands, which are clasped in what looks like prayer. The way the metal curves and dips here suggests a sense of quiet urgency, a personal moment made public. Wenckebach’s other sculptures often play with similar themes of history and memory. Medals, like paintings, are after all just another way of thinking through making. Consider, too, the work of someone like Medardo Rosso, who messed with bronze in interesting ways. Both revel in the material to help us think about time and presence, and the ongoing conversation between past and present.