Gehard Demetz Wood Sculpture

Don’t let the name fool you – Gehard Demetz is an Italian artist, born in Bolzano in 1972 and currently living in Selva di Val Gardena. His debut show was in 2005 and he has caught the attention of the art world quite rapidly – and for good reason. The incredible craftsmanship in his approach to traditional woodcarving is impressive enough, but the strangely haunting portrayals of children he creates are evocative and fascinating.

The winter was hard – Gehard Demetz 2011

His sculptures of children are at the same time attractive and disquieting and rendered with an amazing  perfection that is by no means rhetorical or classical. One of the most startling technical features is the construction using small woodblocks and juxtaposing finely polished parts to very rough and sketchy surfaces. This particular construction and treatment render his sculptures absolutely unique in the domain of contemporary wood sculpture and is partly responsible for the great curiosity aroused by the appearance of his work in the art world.
– the artist’s website, geharddemetz.com

How you reacted was right – Gehard Demetz 2011

Dazed Digital did an interview with Demetz, allowing him to explain the rationale behind his work. A deep thinker, this one.

DD: Your work uses children as the main subject, what’s the intention behind this? Do you find it interesting to put them in a position of power?
Gehard Demetz: My sculptures transmit the awareness of becoming adults and thus losing, as Rudolf Steiner says, their ability to be able to “hear” their unconscious. They live with the burden of guilt transmitted from generation to generation, which does not belong to them. They are children who feel sad about not being able to really be children, but who have, on the other hand, the possibility of choosing to become adults, totally independently, thus freeing themselves little by little of all the influences transmitted by their ancestors. They are witness to all the effort involved in the process of growth and development, which is achieved through individual will and concentration.

DD: The children are paired with different objects, often weapons or religious iconography- why is this? Do you like this stark contrast?
Gehard Demetz: The sculpture and the object work together. They belong to each other also if sometimes the object or the sculpture can be interpreted differently. I like that everybody comprehends my work with his own feelings, depending on his past, his experiences and his background, constructing his own stories. My greatest ambition is to start a dialogue between my sculptures and those who look at them.

DD: What are the reasons for the visible gaps between the blocks in your sculptures?
Gehard Demetz: My sculptures are modelled piece by piece and the building up of the wooden elements recalls the growing up of a child with his fragility and uncompleted procedure.

I hear the spirits when I whisper – Gehard Demetz 2007

On his own website, Demetz has a collection of the press he has received. In an article from PANORAMA – Arte nuova in Alto Adige by Tobia Moroder, Demetz notes:

“It was the theories of Rudolf Steiner that made me see children in this way: he holds that until the sixth year of age, children can sense the unconscious and feel the impulses transmitted to them from their forebears. I am convinced of this hypothesis, together with the idea that these children are at the bottom conscious of their transformation into adulthood, perhaps also in virtue of my personal experience in overcoming infancy, which I remember in a particularly intense way.”

The mouth full of stars – Gerhard Demetz 2005

Pretty compelling work in terms of subject and amazing technique. Maybe it’s time for me to break out the dremel now that I see the incredible potential woodcarving offers. I get a funny feeling my work won’t be as good ( ;) ), but it’s important to have goals – and inspiration.

my headphones save my life – Gehard Demetz 2005