Simon Oud

Simon Oud's (b.1956, NL) sculptures are constructed from zinc, sometimes combined with brass. He is not a sculptor, as he does not cut into a mass. He does not start from a volume from which he takes away in order to arrive at a meaningful form. He builds his work out of sheets of metal. The soft, cold zinc and the massive, warm brass.

He first creates an image in his head and draws it out, tries out variations of it in paper and cardboard before building it from the metal he cuts, bends, rolls, files, solder, etches, sands, polishes and finally places it in a space. In his early creations, Simon Oud investigates the role of agricultural structures as beacons within the polder landscape. The closed nature of these buildings, which contrasts sharply with their vast surroundings, serves as a model for his sculptures. In his work he confronts form with space. In later years his investigation shifts more towards the interplay between the polder and its inhabitants, showing traces of human intervention in the landscape. The creation of those sculptures is partly dependent upon the possibilities offered by the materials, which in his case are zinc and brass. During the construction process the sheet metal material gains independence as an object in which contrasting forms and guidance of light are the expressive elements. After high school he worked as a nurse, mechanic, screen printer and finally seven years as a prop manager at the Dutch Opera. At the age of thirty, after being rejected for his job due to a chronic back injury, he went to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where he first studied painting and eventually monumental design.