Southerner, Northerner, Easterner, Westerner (Zuider-, Noorder-, Ooster-, Westerling – 4 parts)

About this artwork.

On either side of the Van Starkenborghkanaal, directly south of the Oostersluis, there are four men's heads carved out of granite representing the four points of the compass. Southerner is symbolised by a black man with frizzy hair and full lips. This statue was damaged in the Second World War during fighting between Germans and Canadians on 16 April 1945. Easterner can be recognised by an Asian-looking face with a thin hanging moustache, while Northerner is represented by a man with bristly eyebrows and an equally bristly moustache. The facial expression of Westerner is less pronounced. 
 
The striking sculptures, made by the Arnhem artist Gijsbrecht Jacobs van den Hof (1889-1965), formed the ends of two brick railings of a bridge over the drainage canal that used to lie between the Oostersluis and Oosterhoogebrug for almost sixty years. With the new construction of the Oostersluis around 1990, however, the drainage canal was replaced by an underground drainage system. The lock complex was further completely renovated in 1996 and relocated in a northerly direction. But thanks in part to the efforts of local residents, the historic bridgeheads were returned to the two benches on either side of Oostersluis ZZ in 1998.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Gijsbert Jacobs van den Hof

• District
  De Hunze, Ulgersmaborg, Oosterhoogebrug & Noorderhoogebrug

• Year of creation
  1938

• Art type
  Art in / on a building

• Material
  Granite

• Dimensions
  h 1,25 m