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Looking at Kyle Fokken's artwork evokes for me the term "mash-up" - in other words, bringing together two disparate things to create a new whole (the cast of Glee does it all the time with songs).

When I told Fokken this, he laughed and said perhaps "smash-up" would be a better term. Fokken calls his work "3-D collages," combining things like churches and airplanes into one single other-wordly creation. It's something he's been doing for a long time.

Planes, machinery, churches, dogs and wooden clogs are all recurring images in Fokken's work. Fokken says he's drawn to collage because it allows him to work with a

bigger visual pallet. He says when he combines objects he creates - and learns - something new.

Fokken says his interest in churches comes from his own small-town upbringing; he sees run-down country churches as symbols of the loss of American culture.

Once Fokken has come up with a new form, he pays strict attention to both the skeleton and skin of it, making sure that it looks as real as possible from the point of structural engineering.

People have associated Fokken's work with the "Steampunk" movement, but he says that would be a mistake by definition, since many of his creations deal with piston machinery. But like Steampunk creations, Fokken's pieces are filled with nostalgia, at the same time as they evoke worlds never seen. Fokken thinks of his work as "retro-futurist."

You can see Fokken's retro-futurist "smash-ups" on display at his alma mater, 

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

The self-described "retro-futurist" has a show of new work at Saint Cloud State University.

Kyle Fokken’s elegant “smash-ups”

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