Emerging and Fading
Wood is Thomas Diermann's preferred material. As regards content his work refers to the tree as a living being representing the cycle of nature. He suggests the special relatedness of character between human being and tree, by primarily using human measurements for his sculptures as a benchmark. Through abstraction he seeks artistic options in shape, which add to the tree as an image of nature, the creative power of human beings.
In the process the artist always preserves respect for the material, engages in an artistic dialogue with the wood and thus gains his creative intuition. This process begins when he chooses the trunks. No trees are felled for his sculptures, instead he asks friends, neighbours and local foresters for useable timber and leaves it to the material that he is offered to inspire him.
The tree reflects in the artist's own words "sedimented and lived time". [...]
Rhythm
The cycles of nature are also a model for Thomas Diermann's methodical approach. Once he has found the shape for a sculpture that, on the one hand satisfies him, and on the other hand inspires him to a creative, further development, he takes the theme up again, varies it through different lines, new cuts or through bigger dimensions. From these extended experiments stem the sequences that are so typical of his work: Sculptures that, like members of a family, have the same "name", are similar to each other and yet have very individual characteristics. As an example, serves the sculpture "Dance I", created in 1998. Sawn from one trunk, the two axes of the work are clearly separated from one another and yet at the same time touch each other slightly at the head and seemingly at the foot. The tension created by this fleeting gesture is intensified by a parallel lead, vertical rotation of the two bodies that leads to a joined, rhythmical upward movement. Doubled structures, like the wide foot, the small middle and the upper part that runs to an apex along with the traces on the surface that reminds one of skin, and the small vertical cut in both axes, stress the human-likeness of the figure.
Some years later the artist reverts back to the theme "Dance". At this point he works on a trunk more than three metres high. The parallels can be found in the two-part structure, in the stressing of the verticals through rhythmical, lengthwise cuts as well as in the gently carved out, small contact areas of the axes. Nevertheless, the two bodies in this variant differ more from each other; for one can clearly distinguish a masculine and a feminine side. Also, at the first glance the composition looks more statuesque. As with the swaying motion of the waltz, the couple seems to pause for a brief moment before the left turn. The dynamic is not created by bringing out the rotation, but by stressing the dramatic moment and its communication to the observer. "Form is everything (. . .), the movement, that as an invigorating moment, fills the figure and carries it", says the sculptor Franz Bernhard.(3)
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Dialogue with Trees
Sculpture plays an important role in the contemporary art world. A renaissance of sculpturing has taken place and can be enjoyed. A noticeable number of artists are occupying themselves with the material of wood as their medium of expression
Perhaps it is the natural grown material that so attracts the artists or maybe the numerous possibilities of handling that is so appealing. The result's impression however, is often mixed: The material asks respect of its naturally developed characteristics. Wood is a material that has its own influence on the work and to disregard this easily leads to a counterproductive dealing with the material. This is often the case with figurative artists as well as with those artists working with the abstract. [...]
The works of the sculptor Thomas Diermann differ from the start, from many others: for they are characterized by the artist's awareness in dealing with the material. Formally assigned to the abstraction, they are at the same time inseparably connected with figurativeness; they are derived and developed from the tree's own architecture. And yet it is far from his mind to indulge in a frivolous glorification of nature. The fascination that his sculptures arouse stems from the clarity of the structure and the super-ordinated principle of form. The sculptor is free of any sentimentality regarding the working material of wood. .
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