The Awakening of the Snake Bird
Alain Mailland
Description
After studying landscape painting at the National Art School of Cergy-Pontoise near Paris and working as a mason, carpenter, and roofer, Alain Mailland made the transition to woodturning in the early 1990s. Specializing in green woodturning because of the way the work warps and changes shape when drying, he soon developed his own distinctive style and technique.
In The Awakening of the Snake Bird, Mailland uses the lathe to transform wood into a flowing sensuous form, striving to preserve its organic quality and reveal “the landscape under the wood.” It is alive with movement and fluid, undulating rhythms. Its sinuous lines are intricately carved so as not to rupture the fragile armature of the piece. It is an homage to wood and nature: “In my pieces I try to express the beauty of life by revealing the forces living in the wood. I love air and energy passing through the matter. By carving I give a soul to turned shapes and this is my pleasure.”
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004
Physical Description:
organic form consisting of thin concentric tendrils of wood
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