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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Kyle Fokken
Wednesday 03 May @ 15:20:57 |
  by Betsy Mowry
Imagine wandering through the prestigious Uptown Art Fair. You weave your way through the massive crowds, glancing at booths. There’s handmade silver jewelry … ceramics … wildlife oil paintings…headless dog bodies on wheels…fused glass…waaaait a minute—headless dog bodies on wheels?! You’ve just discovered the remarkable work of Twin Cities sculptor Kyle Fokken.
Intrigued? His imminent exhibit, Flying Solo, at the Marshall Arts Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis, will provide you with an opportunity to enter into the imaginative world of Fokken. Fokken creates colorful, visceral and physical sculptures
reflective of antique toys, but with a twist. Using found objects, thrift store machine parts, metal and scrap, Fokkens’ work is playful and entirely unique. In fact, it’s much like a boy’s collection of toys pulled apart and pieced back together to create completely new structures. “I never consider myself a junk sculptor,” he says. “Instead, I try to look at my work through the eyes of someone who has a vision about what they want to make.”
The mixed media sculptures are modeled off basic foundations: dogs, Dutch clogs,
whales and planes, which are used as what Fokken calls “grounding points.”
Based on these, Fokken lets his imagination run wild, as long as the concepts
relate to the scale and form of the “chassis” of the piece. Fokken
keeps ongoing sketch journals and uses them in tandem with various resource books
(on planes and classic automobiles) to see if a particular line or shape is something
he’s drawn before. He jokingly refers to himself as a “spiral thinker”
and looks at things much less conventionally than other people. “My work
is based on a love of antique toys from the late 19th and 20th centuries,”
he explained. “I fuse this nostalgia with a naïve ‘visionary’
art approach.”
 According
to Fokken, every sculpture commands its own internal logic. The actual function
of each piece is well thought out and it evolves to accommodate the purpose it
might hold if it were real. He says this is much like how Leonardo Da Vinci would
draw winged dragons and try to understand how they could fly, although they were
mythical creatures.
One of his 2006 sculptures, “British Tank,” is a playful representation
of a tank, with the body of a Dutch clog. It is constructed to look as though
it might actually work—bike chains allow for movement by the tiny comrades
who might drive the war-weary vehicle from inside. Each section is riveted in
place by mini- and life-sized bolts.
“Eike 2005” is reminiscent of a “Wizard of Oz” flying
monkey, albeit headless and with wheels. Its body is darkly painted, appearing
reptilian, while crow-like feathers protrude, enabling it to fly. What’s
impressive about Fokken’s work is that while the sculptures are surreal,
they’re also so solidly constructed that they almost seem probable. Designed
to communicate familiar images while provoking new ideas, each piece inspires
lively examination. Color, materials and composition are structured to suggest
wear and tear, and the aesthetics are solid and provocative.
As an artist, Fokken straddles the line between commercial and experimental art.
While his work has been shown at galleries nationwide, he also participates in
arts festivals as a way to help “find his niche and his audience.”
In addition, Fokken has been an active participant in establishing and developing
the Soap Factory and the Northeast Minneapolis Artists Association (NEMAA). It’s
his way of supporting the community. “Nobody is just one thing, [so] exposure
to other arts areas helps with your vision,” he said. “Contributing
to community is part of the continuum of the world.” ||
Flying Solo runs May 5–28 at Marshall Arts, 1332 Marshall
St. NE, Mpls., 612-379-4743. Opening reception is Thu. May 4, 5–9 p.m.;
artist talk is Sat. May 21, 2 p.m.; closing reception is Fri. May 26, 5:30–8:30
p.m. Call for gallery hours.
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