Ruben Dahmen

Dromenvanger

NDSM shipyard, Amsterdam-Noord · 2015 · In collaboration with studio Plots

Seen from below: the steel base of a harbour crane with cross bracing, holding a circular ring with a tautly braided net of steel cable; blue sky behind it.
Black and white photograph: a group of people walk along the quay beneath the steel crane base, in which the woven net hangs like a funnel.
Black and white photograph along the crane track: the rails run towards the crane base, in which the net hangs as a pale form among the dark steel.
View downwards through the steel lattice; the net funnels towards the ground, with people standing on the quay below and the harbour basin beyond.
Detail of the timber lower ring with the word DROMENVANGER routed into it; stainless steel eye nuts along the edge hold the steel cables of the net.
Section drawing of the crane base with the dreamcatcher inside it, dimensioned, with a human figure at the bottom for scale.
Plan drawing: a circle in which the steel cables form a dense braided pattern between the outer ring and the smaller inner ring.
A row of five small elevation drawings showing step by step how the rings are hoisted and the net is braided and tensioned.
Detail drawing at 1:5 of the lower ring: four laminated plywood layers with a countersunk bolt, a galvanised washer and a stainless steel eye nut holding the steel cable.
Construction photograph inside the crane base: an orange mobile scaffold, two people at work and the net being pulled up from the ground.
A hand holds up a model of the dreamcatcher: two steel rings with a finely knotted net of black thread between them, against a white door.
Straight up: the net fills the ring, the ring fills the square of the crane. 01 / 11

A dreamcatcher consists of two rings with a braided net between them. Bad dreams are caught in it and only the good ones are let through. Here that form has been manipulated until it became a spatial object you can climb into.

The place

The Dromenvanger hangs inside the base of crane 7 at the NDSM shipyard, beside one of the old slipways. The top of the crane has been removed, but the base and the crane track are still intact. That track gives the crane a prominent place on the site and leads the eye towards it. The location belongs to the purple zone: the part of the yard where art, artists and visitors meet.

What it does

You can sit in the lower ring, inside the seclusion of the dense net. Because the object hangs free, that place can only be reached from below. The space within is enclosed: the view of the immediate surroundings blurs and opens upwards. What appears is an intimate place in the wide expanse of the yard, where good dreams get their chance.

How it was made

The Dromenvanger is built from heavy steel components, black steel cables and one solid timber element, so that it rhymes with the robustness of the former shipyard. The lower ring is made of four laminated layers of 22 millimetre okoumé plywood, coated, with countersunk bolts and stainless steel eye nuts holding the four millimetre cables.

The whole was hung from the crane in five steps: first the lifting system and cables onto the crane, then hoisting the steel upper ring, then attaching the lower ring to the first eight cables, then braiding and tensioning each cable individually, and finally setting the whole to the right height. The structure measures roughly eleven metres across and almost ten metres in height.

Who made it

From beginning to end the project was made in collaboration with studio Plots, an architecture practice based in the Kunststad on the NDSM shipyard. Design and execution were done together. The Dromenvanger is part of the 2013–2016 arts programme of Stichting NDSM-werf and the cultural contribution of Mediawharf, with thanks to the Dienst Maatschappelijke Ontwikkeling of the City of Amsterdam.

Location
Crane 7, NDSM shipyard, Amsterdam-Noord
Year
2015
Collaboration
studio Plots
Build time
One week
Size
About 11 m wide, 9.8 m high
Material
Steel, steel cable ø 4 mm, laminated okoumé plywood
Part of
Arts programme 2013–2016, Stichting NDSM-werf
Status
Realised; hung there for about three years
Photography
Our own