ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1955, Christian Burchard has been living in the United States since 1978. He began working with wood in Germany, as a furniture maker's apprentice, in the mid-seventies and later studied sculpture and drawing at the Museum School in Boston and then at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver BC.
His early focus was on furniture and interiors, but gradually he shifted to woodturning and sculpture, moving between vessel forms and sculptural turning. His work has been included in most of the major turning related exhibits of the last ten years and is exhibited widely throughout the US. His current work includes wall sculptures and freestanding sculptural objects. Burchard is a sought after teacher and demonstrator, and his works reside in many public and private collections.
ABOUT THE WORK
"I work almost exclusively with Pacific Madrone from the Arbutus family. My favorite parts are the burls that grow within the roots of these trees. They are harvested for the veneer market and I use the rejects from this harvest. These burls often weigh many thousand pounds. To make them usable, the dirt and rocks have to be removed, then they can be cut into blocks. By working with wet wood with a high water content (up to 20% of it's volume) and by cutting or turning my forms to a thickness of about an 1/8th of an inch, I take advantage of the changes that occur as the wood dries.
"I work with a variety of tools. The chainsaw is used for most of the wood preparation but also for sculptural pieces. Here, the marks that are left are dramatic and forceful. The lathe is used for round forms; mainly in a series I call 'Baskets'. Tool marks here are subtle and soft. In my current series of wall sculptures, called 'Fragments' and 'Torsos' I work with the band saw and a horizontal band saw mill to cut large blocks of Madrone burl into very thin panels. The saw leaves subtle lines across the surface of the wood. I dry these panels slowly over a period of weeks, sometimes months, in a controlled environment, allowing them to assume their final shape, while minimizing the chances of cracking.
"When they have finished drying, I sandblast and bleach the panels. The sandblasting cleans and softens them. Like a lot of my other work, I use bleach to expose what is within. I remove most of the color to simplify, to focus on the structure and the undulations and textures that occurred through the drying process. At times, I display them as single objects, but mostly I assemble them into larger groups, all cut from the same block of green wood. I am interested in their interactions and the spaces between them. I enjoy the way their shapes and textures flow together and create a whole. Many are discarded.
"To work this closely with nature is a blessing, but also often overwhelming. At times I find myself needing to put my foot down, to control the outcome of my work, only to find that I trampled something beautiful. My work is about my relationship with nature, my desire to connect with it on a deep level. Trying to get under its skin and be part of it, searching, finding something sacred, adding my touch, wrestling with it, showing the beauty of it under a different light.
"I allow my relationships and my need for connection to flow into and inform the work. It is different now than it was ten years ago. There used to be lot of fear in my work, a rush to succeed and a fear of failing. Life has changed and I have slowed down, and my work has gotten simpler and quieter. The difference is that I am not looking for something new all the time. I have gained a deeper understanding of the wood that I am using, there is more breadth in our relationship. I have learned to trust the process, to give it the time and confidence it needs and deserves. That in turn is stretching my creative abilities, strongly affecting me and the work."
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2010
"Be our Guest" A Progressive Invitational, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH
The Art of Wood: Outside the Box' Holter Museum, Helena, Mt
SOFA Chicago
2009
Days of Spring, Moments of Intimate Connections, Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA
Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, GB
'Transformation', Society of Arts and Crafts, Pittsburgh, PA
SOFA Santa Fe.
2008
Over the Edge' University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
New West Coast Design, San Francisco Museum of Craft And Design,CA
Collect' Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London, GB
2007
Craft In America: Expanding Craft Traditions, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK
Palm Springs Art Museum, CA
Turning Green AAW Symposium Portland OR
2006
Wood Now: Craft Alliance, St.Loius, MO
Woodturning on the Edge: Unversity of Idaho, Pritchard Gallery, Moscow ID
Our Turn Now: Artists speak out in Wood, Ohio Crafts Museum, Columbus ,OH
SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York
Turning Wood into Art: Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London, GB
2005
Nature Transformed: University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
Artists Reflections: WTC, Philadelphia, PA
Art Invitational: Great American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
