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Item for RTV Utrecht ‘Route C’
Inside the studio. An item for a local Dutch TV channel (spoken in Dutch). The proces from a rough piece of wood to the final object.
Ruben van der Scheer / Always the circle
“We don’t create an idea. Ideas come to us. You have to translate an idea to a medium.” (David Lynch)
The circle is one of the most important, widespread and oldest symbols worldwide. It is the perfect geometric shape, once begun by seeing, experiencing and worshipping the sun. It represents perfection, infinite and absolute because there is no beginning and no end.
For Ruben van der Scheer everything starts with an idea, in which the circle is a fixed given, because his work is made on a lathe. The lathe and the gouges are used as tools just as the painter has his brushes. Wood, like paint and canvas, is merely a material to concretise an idea.
A block of wood, already somewhat round and cut to size, spins on the lathe. Ruben van der Scheer pushes the gouge, peeling the wood without hesitation, toward the final result. A shower of wood shavings flies through the air, superfluous material. The unique sculpture lies enclosed in the material and only needs to be released from the mass. The form is already fixed in the imagination at the outset. It need only be turned. Once started, there is no turning back. Sometimes an idea proves unsatisfactory and he has to start over. Bad work has no right to exist.
In earlier times, the lathe was a simple wooden device with pedals, working on the principle of a spinning wheel. Today, they are high-quality professional machines with an electric motor. There are also computer-controlled lathes, which convert a 3D rendering into an object at the touch of a button. But a high-tech device also has its limitations both in the technical sense and also in the loss of intuition and contact with the material while turning. Moreover, physical contact with the material is much more satisfying than peering at a screen. The work is made in a dance between man and material, it acquires a soul.
Ruben van der Scheer's oeuvre has been growing steadily since he started as an artist in 2017. There are interpretations on traffic poles where repetition and rounded edges are used in numerous ways. There are also large discs on the wall where repetition of form aspects and movement to infinite depth are central. Then there are small works, in edition, such as his ‘twist of life’ tops, post(c)art, and the Contemplay spinning tops, which create a concentrated meditative moment as the spinning top dances on its soft surface.
Ruben van der Scheer likes to make visible the intrinsic beauty of wood, hidden in a sawn piece of lumber, without becoming romantic. His formal language is strict. He uses native wood such as ash, elm, maple and beech. He experiments with sandblasting for more texture in the work. Or, alternatively, he uses a coating to minimise the texture of the wood to play with color and form. Every choice he makes is already anchored in the idea, because everything starts with a good idea and the circle.
Thimo te Duits