Ralf Westerhof’s ‘Drawn in Light’ is a large installation, six meters in diameter, made of steel. The metal wire is hand-bent into various shapes, which form one drawing. The lines of this drawing reflect the light and illuminate the dark evening sky.
The drawing shows a typical Amsterdam-style canal building and the scenery and people around it. As the installation rotates in an orbit, moved by the cold winter air, the result is a continuously moving, ever changing, drawing of light.
Amsterdam based Ralf Westerhof was initially active as a scenographer in small and mid-sized theatres and in location theatre. His interest and passion for theatre and especially dance, which he still actively practices, is visible in his work. His works are often kinetic and the experience of the audience is an important element in his artistic and presentation choices. His work taps into the physical and mental capacities we all have in common and not just on knowledge or familiarity with the framework it should be perceived from. Everyone, from school kids to the elderly, from architects and art lovers to people that never see art, seems to be able to relate to the work. The minimal line drawings offer them only part of the image and it's up to their minds to fill in the gaps continuously as they or the work moves. They become co-creators of what they see: it's not just looking, it's an active process, an experience.
Since 2013 his work has become widely known and he became a full time artist. At first through galleries and on Art Fairs where his work got a lot of attention. In 2014 he participated in the Amsterdam Light Festival with his work "Drawn in Light", a large, 13 meter wide mobile that was a moving drawing of an Amsterdam cityscape. The success of this work led to an eight page publication in Bright2, the main book on light art and architectural illumination and interest from all over the work. Apart from shows in the Netherlands his work has been presented in: Belgium, Singapore, Romania, Sweden, Canada, Portugal, Slovenia, Israel, Switzerland and Germany.