Ester Christen

I am inspired by trees and the way they relate to each other, often finding similarities with the human world and making associations to interactions between people.

Trees are symbols of strength and calmness, growth and the interconnectedness of everything.

The process starts by choosing a piece of wood to work WITH and then let it decide which direction to go first. It often is an intuitive process where I slowly start to see the figure and am able to free it from the trunk by using hammer and chisel.
It is a long process and full of surprises. One never knows what is hidden inside.
Wood can be challenging and hard but at the same time inspiring and soft.

I have chosen to work with wood because it is alive and forces one to adapt and evolve continuously.

Born into an artistic family in 1987, Ester grew up surrounded by art.
She spent the first three years of her life in Italy. After that, the family decided to move to Switzerland. Since then, she has been living between the two cultures.

In 2003 she started her education in architecture, while also attending an artistic high school from 2003-2007 (GBMS Zürich).
As part of the final thesis, she chose to create a sculpture out of a trunk of wood. It was her first experience at sculpting and was definitely not what one would call “love at first sight”!
But 10 years later and with a different mindset, she got back into it.

After completing her education, she worked for various architectural companies but found that kind of work too limiting.

In 2012 she decided to travel. Her hunger for experiencing different cultures and learning more about humanity and what it means to be human is what keeps her going.
In between her travels she experiments with different types of wood. She teaches herself how to work with hammer and chisel and has been on that journey ever since.

She is currently working and living in Switzerland.