Louis Niënhuis

'Wood is in no hurry'
The origins of the work of Louis Niënhuis (1953) can be found in his father's workshop. As the son of a furniture maker, he played with leftover blocks of wood. After his training at the National Academy of Art in Amsterdam, sculpture department (1981), these familiar wood blocks became the building blocks with which he constructs his sculptures. From the mechanically formed parts used by his father as a furniture maker, Louis confronts the mechanically processed material through organically sculpted shapes.

A dialogue arises between natural growth forms and the forms developed by humans that appeal to transience - a return to mother earth. The temporary nature of things is also emphasized and human intervention is reduced to a part within a process of existence. A self-ennobling mechanism with a melancholic undertone, a confrontation through the use of nature on the one hand and degradation on the other. The origin, not only of wood, but the spiritual value of everything that animates us is hereby emphasized.

Niënhuis's sculptures are not only made of wood but are also about wood. They are a tribute and expression of thanks to trees. They show the stages of development of trees and the cycle of life: growing, blossoming, bearing fruit and withering, year after year, to finally be felled and sawn, often for the benefit of humans, while young shoots emerge again.

Wood plays a crucial, leading role in his life, but the way he deals with it is constantly changing. Wood is the expression material in which he processes his creative urge. It is also the connection between his classical sculpture training and his origins and source of inspiration: his father's workshop.