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5/4/2005

Folkert de Jong

Chisenhale Gallery, London

Medussa's First Move: The Council

Chisenhale Gallery is pleased to present a new commission by Dutch artist Folkert de Jong.

Medusa’s First Move: The Council - de Jong’s first solo exhibition in the UK - is an installation of life-size figurative sculptures, constructed in blue Styrofoam and polyurethane foam. Gathered around a table, the various characters are absorbed in what may be a séance or a decadent soirée while the gallery space around them is strewn with Styrofoam debris.

De Jong is fascinated with the moment in which human beings cross the line of morally acceptable behaviour. As a starting point for his work, De Jong immerses himself in the thoughts and motives of obsessive characters: witch hunters, religious zeolots, political fanatics, militarists, mediums or serial killers. He investigates and reconstructs their use of symbols and rituals in an attempt to master unseen forces, be they supernatural or unconscious.

De Jong’s work evokes both humour and horror in a manner reminiscent of paintings by George Grosz, Otto Dix and James Ensor. In the same tradition, de Jong’s theatrical scenes explore the boundaries separating security from chaos, play from violence and pleasure from cruelty.

Folkert de Jong was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, in 1972. He attended the Academy for Visual Arts 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. 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). Recent group exhibitions include: Peres Projects, Los Angeles (2005), Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles (2005), Interim Art, London (2004).

Project Info

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).

Chisenhale Gallery
64 Chisenhale Road
London

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