A sensory experience
- Thomas is primarily self-taught
- He combines wood turning with sculpting
- For him, creation is a sensory symbiosis
Thomas Pildner's passion for the material of wood and his urge to create, to reconnect head and hands, send him along a path to becoming a craftsman. Since 1998 he has been experimenting with wood and its possibilities. Then in 2005, at the time a successful manager in the aviation industry, Thomas decided to focus on the craft of wood turning and leave his management career behind. Self-taught with the occasional guidance of luminaries of the craft such as Peter Gwiasda and Mike Tingey, as well as the sculptor Eberhard Müller-Fries, he developed unique techniques that break with traditional rules of wood turning in order to materialize a comprehensive sensory experience from a piece of wood. His works have been exhibited at Kloster Eberbach in Eltville, Zeughausmesse in Berlin, and at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt.
Interview
- Why wood turning?
- It opens up an almost infinite creative space and it allows me to fully express my passion for this wonderful material through consciously experiencing all different stages of the creation process, in which a raw piece of wood becomes a sensual touching work.
- Do you mean touching in the literal sense?
- Yes, also in the literal sense. Discovering the topography of the surface, feeling the weight of the material, smelling its unique scent. To create is a journey of the senses, a wonderful symbiosis of our sensory set-up.
- How do innovation and tradition combine in your practice?
- Tradition sets the foundation for innovation. First I work out the basic form of a piece at the lathe by removing material in rotation. In a second step, I use various hand tools to freely shape and modulate the wood body to its final, individual form.
- What are the most memorable moments?
- Sometimes after I have finished a piece, I come into the workshop the next morning and the feeling that you get when you see your own creation for the first time again is just overwhelming. Not because the work itself is so great, but just because it’s a materialization of your own ability to create.
Thomas Pildner is an expert artisan: he began his career in 2010
Where
Thomas Pildner
