The cover image for this issue of Artkrush is a detail from a photograph taken of Johan Simons' outdoor installation Time, now on view as part of Sonsbeek 2008: Grandeur, an international sculpture exhibition in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The Dutch theatre director's life-size figure features a man's face atop an androgynous body on one side, and a child's face on a voluptuous female torso on the reverse. Perched on an artificial branch, it periodically bobs over a path, startling visitors with its pivoting golden body. Time arrived at its woodsy site on June 8 via a procession of more than 1,000 Arnhem townspeople, who carried the exhibition's works through the old inner city. Along with 26 pieces by 28 other artists, Time remains in Sonsbeek Park through September 21.

Born in Holland in 1946, Simons first trained as a dancer in Rotterdam and studied acting at the Maastricht Theatre Academy. In 1976, he joined the Haagsche Comedie, staged his first production, and shortly thereafter co-founded Het Wespetheater, a traveling actors' collective. In 1982, he founded his own theater company, Het Regiotheater, which employed an improvisational style, but also performed scripted works. In 1985, Simons' group merged with another to form Theatergroep Hollandia and found fame performing Greek tragedies in unlikely venues such as factories, farms, and fish markets. In 2003, the group further expanded to become ZT Hollandia, and Simons' work shifted toward more contemporary and socially conscious themes. Collaborative projects with the director are highly sought after, and he has guest-directed at theaters throughout Germany and Switzerland. His recent projects explore opera, including a production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for the Dutch Opera this past February.

Simons brings his theatrical background to this figure, his first foray into the strictly visual arts. Like his bold theatre productions, Time is unusual, interactive, and, with its lack of context, as timeless as Greek tragedy and opera. The piece's strange arrival must also be considered part of the work — borne on the shoulders of Arnhem citizens, Simons' hermaphroditic sculpture resembled the treasured body of a saint, ready to serve in a curious reliquary. -Lauren McKee