Corona RichLab Rocket Program (CRRP)

Looking for inspiration during the covid-19 lockdowns

When museums, cinemas, restaurants and sports clubs all had to close during the covid-19 lockdowns, there was little else Sluijs could do but taking walks through his city. Meanwhile, looking for new paint spots in the public space for his Jackson Pollock-like collages and all kinds of discarded materials in the streets and in construction waste containers for possible new recycling ideas. While wandering, he came across a large Tintin rocket in the window of a collector's shop. An iconic design by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé that he already knew from his youth (which, in addition to playing football, consisted largely of reading comics and building scale models). He would have loved to have such a large Tintin rocket in the past, but unfortunately it was unaffordable.

Tribute to Hergé

Standing in front of the shop window, he thought to himself that – while work on other projects had slowed down – he could make a model himself with a number of found ingredients, based on Hergé's original construction drawing in the comic album 'Rocket to the Moon' from 1953. Thinking out the construction, the drawing and building the actual rocket felt very satisfying (reminding him also of the good old days), and when shortly afterwards he found a headboard of a bed with tapered wooden bars – each of which could serve as a core or point of a rocket – a new category of recycle art was born: the Corona RichLab Rocket Program (CRRP). A series of smaller and larger models, with the similarity that they all – as a tribute to Hergé – have a base of three legs. The shapes of the rockets are very diverse however, always determined by the different parts found in the streets. A project inspired by nostalgia, with love for craftsmanship, which hopefully will bring a smile to the visitors when recognizing the joy of recycling.