Esther Nienhuis

The desire to be Elsewhere is a recurring theme in the work of Esther Nienhuis. She explores the relation between Heimweh (longing for the known) and Fernweh (longing for the unknown), and how their co-existence defines the human condition. Through a variety of images she looks at making perceptible the metaphorical boundary that isolates the here and now from other realities (past, future or imaginary). In the series Saudade, where views are given from behind rain-covered or sun lit windscreens of a car, this boundary is approached as a physical one. The film of water and the reflection of the sun on the otherwise unnoticed glass partly deform the view. This troubling layer is omnipresent, defining both the here and elsewhere. In the series Into the Void glowing mountaintops draw the eye towards infinity. The reflection of the sunlight in the snow-covered summits suggests a time just before sunrise or after sunset. This indeterminate route of the sun is juxtaposed with the inert mountain-scape and points to the interstitial notion of the light, the time and the viewer always being elsewhere.