New Life

Created by Ronald A. Westerhuis, New Life was exhibited as part of the 2014 Jing’an International Sculpture Project in Shanghai. The six-meter-high stainless steel sculpture takes its inspiration from a bamboo shoot, using a form closely associated with growth and renewal to explore ideas of personal development, cultural identity, and the importance of understanding the past.

The two sides of the sculpture are given contrasting finishes that form an important part of the work’s meaning. One side has a matte stainless steel surface, representing the future, learning, and the unknown possibilities ahead. The other is polished to a mirror finish, reflecting the viewer and surrounding environment as a representation of the past and the experiences that shape us.

CIG collaborated with Westerhuis on the realization of the sculpture, supplying the prefabricated 10 mm 316 stainless steel plates from which the work was created. The complex curved components were produced by CIG before being delivered to Ronald A. Westerhuis’s studio in Zwolle, where the sculpture was assembled and its distinctive matte and mirror-polished surfaces were finished.