Tomáš Medek

Stone sculptor

©Tomáš Medek

©David Zidlicky

©Tomáš Medek

Crafting order and chaos

Tomáš sculpts organic structures in stone, metal and other materials
His work combines craftsmanship with 3D technology
He is inspired by pollen grains viewed under a microscope

Tomáš Medek started out working with wood and metal. Later, he studied sculpture in Czechia and Nova Scotia, Canada, and began using other materials including sandstone, Carrera marble, Corian (artificial stone) and different composite materials. His name was made internationally with Uroboros, a monumental outdoor stainless sculpture he made for the French city of Reims. His current work centres around organic structures and the processes and principles of nature. His intricate forms are sometimes like highly magnified vegetables (pattypan squashes, peppers), or are of a more abstract shape. The viewer is invited to perceive the object as a kind of grid structure in the moment of change between order and chaos.

Interview

©Tomáš Medek

©Tomáš Medek

How does your work benefit from innovative technologies?: 3D technology allows me to build complicated organically structured artworks. Using 3D software enables insight into the object and its structure, which can be modified, enlarged, reduced, deformed, etc. Often it would not be possible without using rapid prototyping technologies.
What are you striving to create with your recent works?: With some of them I'm assembling a kind of chaotic tangle, which I'm going to untangle or reveal to the viewer. The shape, which may seem like a mere knotted string to one person, may remind others of three-dimensional abstraction predicted by contemporary physics.
Your series Pollen is inspired by microscopic natural forms...: Yes, it was based on pollen grains observed under a microscope. I have used different materials for this collection, including Carrera marble and Corian. Each grain is unique in size, too. With this work I had the fantastic possibility to recreate a hidden world.
Why do you use artificial stone?: It's not just because using Carrera marble has a higher price and a long delivery time, but actually because I like the properties of the synthetic stone Corian. Its solidity allows me to create smaller hollow objects with very fine self-supporting structures.

Tomáš Medek is a master artisan: he began his career in 1992 and he started teaching in 1998