​Ralf Sander - Artist

Almost all of my early works took the human body as its subject and base for human scale wooden sculptures and carvings made from a single log of wood. I describe the work as: "encounter with the other side of appearance". His work attempts to treat the body not as an object but a common condition. Since 2000 Iexperiments with different materials and media, including film. He repeatedly refers in his work on whole social groups and integrates their participation into the working process, (as in:Rolandtransfer, Child`s play,Lernen ist sich Oeffnen) relying on Joseph Beuys term Soziale Plastik.

The project`s aim is the creative analysis of human image (representation) and as a meting point of the historical, cultural and biological. My aim is to draw these interconnections into sharp relief by exploring the different relations to and representations of the body. My figurative sculptures aim towards a re-evaluation of human representation in a contemporary context.

I was influenced by the typological approach in human representation in the photographic work of August Sander.

Also I studied medieval Japanese sculpture from the Kamakura period in Japan (research trip supported trough DAAD) and   German medieval sculpture ( Veit Stoss and Riemenschneider).

I created wooden sculptures, in which I translated my observations and findings about technique and composition.