Wooden gifts - Christian Burchard

"Every material has a life of its own, and you can't destroy a living material without being punished for doing something dumb and meaningless. We must not make the materials speak our language. We must go along with them to the point where others understand their language„.

It is the quote from Brâncuși you come across as soon as you land on the artist's website Christian Burchard. When you look at his work you really get the feeling that the wood wanted to say something, and the artist was with him until he succeeded.

Hidden woodwork

Christian Burchard was born in Hamburg in 1955 and had his first contact with wood working as an apprentice for furniture manufacturers in Germany. In 1978 he moved to the USA where he studied sculpture and drawing at the Museum School in Boston and art and design at Emily Carr College in Vancouver. In 1982, he opened his own studio where he initially made furniture and interior decoration, before moving slowly into carving and woodturning.

Burchard uses all kinds of tools to make the wood tell its story. From heavy tools like the chainsaw and lathe, with which he begins his foray inside the wood, to chisels and other fine tools. All are skillfully used to bring to light the work hidden in the wood.

Other methods are used to achieve the desired result. The wood is bleached, sand-blasted and dried, all of which reveal hidden mysteries. The wood is bleached so that the eye is no longer stolen by the color and all attention is drawn to the structure, shapes and undulations that form after drying.

Burchard says he has been working with wood most of his life and has a relationship with it that he values greatly. He is always looking inside the wood for the gift it wants to give.

Christian Burchard's works are the gift that wood has always wanted to give us, and the artist's talent helps us understand its hidden language.