Peter Bauhuis: 
Outis 


Artist list

Peter Bauhuis

Outis - 
Nobody, no man

What kind of name is that for a line of brooches? Is this modesty to the point of self-denial? Or is it an answer? It was certainly the perfect rejoinder in the Iliad, when the monstrous Polyphemos, one-eyed and clueless, asked who goes there in his cave. "Outis," said Odysseus, cunningly punning on his name, which happened to sound so much like the ancient Greek word for nobody. Or does it mean the brooch makes its wearer a nobody? Or somebody unlike anybody else? An utterly unique individual? When Polyphemos devoured Odysseus' comrades, Odysseus put out the giant's eye. "Nobody, my friends, is trying to kill me," cried the terrible mouth that had eaten the men. Odysseus had just shown him what a nobody could do.
 My parents had a shop. Customers and strangers usually entered it with a greeting. To distinguish family members and employees, they were required to call out "it's nobody" loud and clear when setting foot into the door. Somebody is behind every Outis. All the more so when that somebody pins on Outis.

Peter Bauhuis is born 1965. He is based in Munich, Germany, where he also studied at Akademie der Bildenden Künste under Prof. Otto Künzli. He is trained as a goldsmith and known for his special casting techniques. Besides jewellery, he makes corpus which is unusal in casting. His work is widely loved and can be seen in a number of galleries and museums worldwide. Peter Bauhuis has been represented at Platina since 2004.