Once completed, the work depicts a mother breastfeeding her child, and actress Thekla Reuten modeled for it. The statue symbolizes care, future and responsibility — an ode to the power of Mother Earth.
Six years of work, 100,000 bottles
Peter has been working on the statue for six years and it is made from the material of more than 2,500 kilos of recycled plastic. That plastic comes from more than a hundred thousand bottles, collected by people from all twelve provinces of the Netherlands.
The bottles have been melted down into granules, with which Smith uses a giant 3D printer to produce the parts of the sculpture. He then welds everything together in his studio.
Until now, Smith worked in a large hall on the former Draka site in Amsterdam-Noord. There was once a cable factory there; the vacant factory hall has provided shelter to artists and makers in recent years.
But the hall will soon be demolished to make way for housing, and Smith will have to leave his studio on November 17, at which time the statue will also become homeless.
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