"Every material has a life of its own, and you can't destroy a living material, without punishment, to make something dumb and meaningless. We don't have to make materials speak our language. We have to go along with them to the point where others understand their language„.
It is the quote from Brancusi you come across as soon as you get to 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 works in wood
Christian Burchard was born in Hamburg in 1955 and had his first contact with wood while 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 decorations, after which he moved 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 into the wood, to chisels and other fine tools. All are skilfully used to bring out the hidden work in the wood.
Other methods are used to achieve the desired result. The wood is bleached, sandblasted and dried, operations which reveal hidden mysteries. He bleaches the wood so that the eye is no longer stolen by the colour and all attention is drawn to the structure, shapes and undulations that form as a result of drying.
Burchard says he has worked with wood most of his life and has a relationship with it that he values greatly. He is always looking within 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.
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