Over Pim Wever

Even as a child, Pim was preoccupied with drawing and painting. Growing up in the polder, in freedom, amidst the nature in West Friesland, nature is also inevitably his greatest source of inspiration. Furthermore, he is a freethinker with broad interests and a man of imagination, contemplation and action.

Pim Wever (1966) lives and works in the Netherlands. After his initial study of structural engineering, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Art & Design in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1994. He discovered his passion for sculpture while studying at the academy in  's-Hertogenbosch. The combination of his engineering and art studies dovetails perfectly with his current activities. All this has resulted in a diversity of works, most of which were made on  commission. His designs range from pieces of jewellery to fountain sculptures several metres high and he is experienced in the utilization and implementation of state-of-the-art techniques.

Pim still experiences it as something very special whenever someone asks him to make a sculpture. In his words: "It's something like a meeting of kindred spirits. The people who commission a sculpture are people with an open attitude and a broad perspective, people who have higher aspirations. In order to arrive at a good design it is very important for me to feel the client's engagement in the process. Without that, the object I make will never really 'come to life'. My line of approach is to be of service. My ultimate goal is always to create a sculpture in which the client recognizes beauty and which exceeds their expectations. For me, making beautiful objects and thereby stirring the human spirit in a positive way, is a matter of survival, it's what keeps me standing, in the midst of everything that's occurring on this earth."

Autonomous works

During the past fifteen years, Pim Wever has been focusing on developing autonomous series of works in which he examines the current human condition by exploring the tension between uncontrolled growth and cultivation in the natural world. He is fascinated by the innate raw edges that lie dormant just beneath our domesticated skin. We find ourselves in a peculiar form of captivity that dulls our natural senses, condemning us to a vague but still perceptible helplessness. The savage psychological undercurrents rendered inert by our polished, 'civilized' everyday life. A curious construct: the creative human animal, the mystical, religious experience that we believe makes us human, versus the unending, internal struggle to control the natural instinct and ultimately nature itself. Wever's exploration invites us to contemplate our place as humans in the world, in relation to each other, to nature, to animals, to plants and to the earth. His work constitutes a subtle plea for the mystical experience, for the inexplicable and indefinable. He seeks to enrapture himself and the observer and thus introduce uncertainty and something akin to faith, as a counterpoint to the cold precision that underlies technology. He reflects on the ethical questions related to hybridization and transhumanism; what are the implications for humanity of our unquestioning embrace of technology, and indeed what are our chances of actually remaining human if our domestication manifests itself ever more strongly?