Imagine contemplating a landscape, the gentle shapes of the dunes and the waves lapping slowly. Or, a countryside scene, where the valleys meet the harmonious lines of nature. These scenarios often present us with smooth and gracious lines that are part of our experience in nature. The Triptych piece by Gabriel Tarmassi might take you back to one of those places.

The beginning

Gabriel Tarmassi is a trained furniture maker based in Bamberg, Germany. Dreamy memories of being surrounded by nature and walking in the forest are very present in his mind – they served as an inspiration to the artist’s creations and helped him develop a special connection with wood. ‘I was drawn to wood from an early age. Walking around in the forest… do carvings, I guess it was the material that had an attraction on me,’ said Gabriel.

The Material

Wood contains many stories within. Stories of adaptation and survival, stories of ancient forces that reflect the tree’s life. As Gabriel Tarmassi told us, ‘there is such a wood variety of species alone, within each species, how every single tree has been growing just tells a unique story. I am always searching for ways of bringing out the actual inherent beauty of the material’.

The Triptych

Triptych consists of three panels from locally sourced maple wood. The process of this work started with cutting the parallel vertical grooves with a circular saw in the panels. After tracing the dynamic lines that define the appearance of the work, Gabriel goes into the carving and smoothing process. In the end, the piece is finished with a beeswax varnish made by the artist.

This piece embraces o central question of Gabriel’s work, the idea that collective memories of surroundings are reflected in all of us. ‘By interpreting natural shapes such as landscapes, dunes, and waves, I reflect on the surroundings that have shaped our consciousness over a long period of evolutionary processes. The vertical lines form a grid that abstracts the geomorphic structure, suggesting the association with topographic renderings.’

Watch our full interview in the video below.

Interview with Gabriel Tarmassi | Words by Rita Trindade

Photography Gabriel Tarmassi.