Chair to Rock
A Poet’s Statement
For 23 years Dutch artist Kees Hensen had a cabin in Val Bavona, one of the most remote valleys of the Swiss Alps. The first four years he resided there all seasons through, curious about his ability to adapt to the wild surroundings.
The Bavona Valley is an idyll landscape, with its steep slopes and waterfalls. The views are always accompanied by the white noise of streaming water from the Bavona river. Living in such a magnificent environment was a life changing experience for Kees Hensen. Life is rough and conditions are harsh. He dedicated himself entirely to writing and visual poetry.
Lessons Learned
The cabin had a cosy open fire-place, but due to a malfunctioning chimney the small space would instantly be filled with smoke. For fresh air Kees Hensen had to leave the door ajar, even in the coldest seasons. To keep warm he pulled a kitchen chair up close to the fire, as close as he could bear. It was during these moments that the artist started longing for a straightforward, low-seated chair that he could tilt even closer into the warmth of the hearth. Once he left his cabin and moved further up the valley, Kees Hensen made his first chair.
The Chair to Rock series is an ode to Kees Hensen’s precious lessons learned amid the Swiss mountains. The chairs are an expression of his thoughts and feelings there. During their creation, the artist was reminded of how he used to be told off as a child: “Sit still! Don’t wobble. You’re ruining that chair!” This fuelled his idea to make strong, durable ‘chairs to rock’.
HANDMADE from start to finish
The Chair to Rock chairs are entirely handmade by the artist himself in Amsterdam and Ticino, where the Bavona Valley lies. Because there is no electricity in Val Bavona, only hand tools were used, acquired from a closed-down boatyard in Amsterdam. The timber comes from trees that grew either in the Bavona Valley or once stood in the city of Amsterdam: chunks of tree trunks cut for archaic cabin roof constructions or rest wood otherwise shredded or burned, revealing knots and traces of the sawmill.
Once completed, the chairs are tinted and waxed with a mixture of walnut oil, beeswax and candelilla wax, giving them a solid, matte finish.
