Andres Rattasepp
Estonian sculptor, chainsaw carver, art and crafts teacher
Born in 1970 in Tallinn, Estonia, I spent my childhood and school years alternately in the small town of Tõrva in Southern Estonia and in the multicultural mining town of Maikain, Kazakhstan.
This contrast in environments gave me, early on, an impulse to see the world from different perspectives and to notice the forms and materials around me.
Education
My educational path has been layered and diverse. In 1989, I graduated from Tallinn Vocational School No. 42 as a metal turner, gaining a solid foundation in practical skills. However, a few years later, my interest in art and creativity led me to continue my studies at Tallinn Pedagogical University, where I trained to become an art and technical drawing teacher. Years later, I pursued a master’s degree in heritage technology at the Viljandi Culture Academy of the University of Tartu, completing it in 2014 with a thesis titled “Estonian Birch-Bark Satchels: Characteristics, Weaving Techniques and Possible Modern-Day Uses”. That same year, I also studied traditional woodworking at the Olustvere School of Service and Rural Economics. I am currently studying sculpture at Pallas University of Applied Sciences.
Work experience
My work experience is just as varied as my education. I began my career as a turner at Mõigu KEK and later at AS Kodu. I have worked as an animator’s assistant at the A-Film Eesti animation studio, as a stage and lighting technician at the Estonian Drama Theatre and the Tallinn City Theatre, and I have created stage designs and props for both professional and amateur theatre productions. For over ten years, I taught art and technology in primary school, with a focus on creativity, material awareness, and developing technological thinking. Together with my students, we worked with wood, wire and tin embossing, leathercraft, origami, ceramics, glass fusing, stained glass, mosaic, metal casting, and plaster moulding. We also built scale models, car and aircraft models, took part in student competitions, and received several awards.
From 2015 to 2017, I was the director of Valga Museum. I have organized and led numerous handicraft projects and events for youth. For my contributions to the fields of handicrafts and culture, I have received several national and local honors.
Artistic Work
I started engaging with sculpture more seriously in the early 2010s—first as a hobby, then as a side job carving wooden figures. Since 2019, this has become my professional activity, and in 2022, I founded the company Puu Vägi OÜ, which focuses on creating wooden sculptures, benches, and other wooden objects. In 2023, Puu Vägi was recognized as Company of the Year in both Valga County and the municipality of Valga.
In addition to chainsaw carving, I have created ice and snow sculptures as well as fire sculptures made of hay, straw, and wood. I have participated in various wood, ice, and snow sculpture festivals in Estonia, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, and Finland. Among the more notable achievements are 3rd place at the 2013 Moscow International Ice and Snow Sculpture Contest, a special award at the 2017 International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Yakutsk (an event held in temperatures as low as –50°C—still the most extreme festival experience I’ve had), and 2nd place at the 2025 Oulu Nallikari International Snow Sculpture Festival. I have also created sculptures for the MultiGrad ice and snow sculpture park in Kuzminki Park, Moscow, and for the Sorrisniva Ice Hotel in Norway.
Current Situation
At present, I am working on material for my solo exhibition. I am deeply interested in multifaceted, complex, and inherently contradictory nature of the human being, and in humanity’s equally complex and conflicted relationship with the natural world and with the artificial environments of our own making.