Name:  Uwe Foehring

Medium:  stone and cement

Background: self taught, trial and error 

How long have you been a sculptor?  ca 10 years

Why did you start sculpting?  Originally I started sculpting because I had some shapes in my head for a long time and then I finally got to make them real. My first sculpture was my polar bear, which I still make and sell in different sizes and stones.

The more I tried and practiced, I found sculpting as a way to express thoughts and feelings in an intensity I haven’t known before. By now, new sculptures/shapes basically do themselves, I just start somewhere and the material and hands take over… the process can get quite emotional.

What inspires you?  Three things: 1. nature, animals, trees….. 2. politics, injustices…. 3. other sculptors

What is your favourite sculpture?  The “Silence of Bagram”. It may not be the prettiest one, but it came about after a report on the radio about this jail and torture in Afghanistan. I could feel all my anger and frustration about our two-faced and hypocritical western leaders flowing into this sculpture. I am still working on a bigger version in cement in my garden….

Which sculptures will you be exhibiting at Dimensions 2013?  The ‘Choir Boy’, a bird, and ‘Amnesty for Obama’

What will you be working on in the coming year?  Who knows? Those ideas often come rather sudden and unexpected. But certainly I will keep producing my hearts of stone, polar bears and other things that people seem to enjoy