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| Folkert de Jong | ||
| Statement | ||
| Folkert de Jong creates chaotic
figurative scenes using polyurethane foam and paint. His works convey an
uncanny and dreamlike quality where the perverse collides with the familiar. Previous installations by de Jong, such as The Iceman Cometh (2001) have been influenced by artists such as George Grosz, Otto Dix and James Ensor in evoking both humour and violence. Through exploring the more disruptive and disturbing side of the unconscious de Jong’s sculptural characters appear at times brutal, playful, mutilated, hybridised, power-crazed or deranged. De Jong is fascinated by the way in which some people can be consumed by obsession. He immerses himself in imagining the thoughts and motives of existing or fictitious characters: witch hunters, religious maniacs, political fanatics, militarists and serial killers. He investigates and reconstructs the manner in which these people mark their environment with language, signs, symbols and rituals. Many of his sculptural figures have limbs missing and are situated in a curious world of symbolic props, also made from styrofoam, including industrial pallets, a legless horse, radiators and junk food detritus. De Jong’s works metaphorically explore the fragile barrier that separates security from chaos and play from violence. His chosen materials are skillfully manipulated to convey this sense of fragility while emphasising the gravity and disruptive power of what he shows us unfolding nightmarishly in his work. Folkert de Jong was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands in 1972. He attended the Academy for Visual Arts, Amsterdam and the Rijksacademy for Visual Arts, Amsterdam and has held residencies in New York, the Netherlands, Norway, France and India. In 2003 de Jong was a finalist for the Prix de Rome for sculpture. Recent solo exhibitions include: Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam (2004); Meet me and Mister Beefy, The Netherlands Foundation for Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, Amsterdam (2003); Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2001); De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands (2000). Group Exhibitions include: Prix de Rome 2003, Museum for Contemporary Art GEM, Den Haag; Stroomversnelling,Groningermuseum, Groningen, (2002); Proeftuin, Centre for Visual Arts, Dordrecht (2002). |
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Folkert de Jong (Alkmaar, The Netherlands 1972)
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