18 june 2020, Flor Linckens
Folkert de Jong | Galerie Fons Welters
Until August 29, Fons Welters Gallery in Amsterdam offers you the opportunity to admire an enormous installation by Dutch artist Folkert de Jong. De Jong: “If I have an idea, I start working with portraits in the studio, I create characters in a theater setting. I want to make archetypes, portray the essence by compressing identities. I am looking for a universal language, the strength must lie in its simplicity.”
For his monumental sculptures, De Jong uses industrial styrofoam and polyurethane foam, two insulating materials that originated in the war industry and are now mainly used in construction. The material is made in three colours: brownish yellow, pink, and light blue - resulting in a grating and slightly toxic-looking combination. De Jong transforms these materials into life-size art installations in which the production numbers are often still visible. During his residency at the Rijksakademie, De Jong became fascinated by conflict situations and people who show insane and transgressive behaviour. He watches many films about psychopaths and is inspired by artists like Mike Kelley, Goya and Paul McCarthy. Picasso is also an important source of inspiration: they share a fascination for harlequins and the introverted circus family Les Saltimbanques. In his newer work, De Jong mainly uses transparent plastic and bronze, which he processes with acids.
De Jong's instantly recognisable human figures are dramatic, absurd and grim and find their roots in horror, pop culture and well and lesser-known historical events, like the witch hunts and the murder of the Dutch De Witt brothers in 1672. That grim effect is enhanced by the fact that the artist wears a gas mask while processing the material, due to the toxic fumes that are released during the process. Speed is a prerequisite because the material is often cured after only 30 seconds.
Folkert de Jong, The Shooting...at Watou; 1st of July 2006, Galerie Fons Welters.
The satirical and morbid installations are often commissions, which is why a lot of his works have a strong connection to the space for which they were made. De Jong: “They work best in an empty, institutional environment. If you put them in a shopping center, it wouldn't work.” For example, the installation that is now on display at Galerie Fons Welters was originally made for the Flemish poetry and art festival of Watou. The work is inspired by the First World War, which had a heavy impact on the surrounding area. But the imagination in the installation ‘The Shooting...at Watou; 1st of July 2006’ is also inspired by a work by Goya and an imaginary event during the Eighty Years' War that was devised by De Jong. This is the first time that the work will be exhibited in the Netherlands..
De Jong's work has been exhibited worldwide and is included in the collections of the Kunstmuseum in The Hague, the Groninger Museum, the LACMA museum in Los Angeles and the Saatchi Collection in London. In 2003, De Jong won the Prix de Rome and in 2019, one of his installations from the Rabobank collection was shown in the exhibition Out of Office in the Singer Laren Museum.
The installation in Fons Welters Gallery will be on show until August 29.
