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TOBIAS SCHALKEN
Growing up in a creative environment,
Tobias Tycho Schalken (b. 1972) was stimulated to develop
his talents at an early age. Schalken: "I have an artistic
background, yeah. I suckled it with my mother's milk. My dad
was a sketch artist at the courts of justice. I often joined
him as a kid. He'd let me draw the moustache for instance,
or the glasses. My mother was a cleaning lady at the Rijksmu-seum,
which is the biggest museum for classical arts in Holland.
She really learned to appreciate the fine arts there and often
told me bedtime stories about pieces she'd discovered. She
used to take me along as well, until I scratched a Rembrandt
with the end of a broomstick and she got fired." (1)
Incited to join the Royal
London Ballet Academy when he was only six years old, Schalken
became entangled in a new world of strict regularity and discipline
- a world at right angles to his liberal childhood years.
Schalken nevertheless remembers his London period as one of
the most influential episodes in his life: "Because I
was often completely exhausted, I found myself in a nearly
continuous state of slumber, which made it really easy to
connect with my subconscious. Your inhibitions drop off. Besides,
you live totally isolated from the outside world, which makes
it very hard - particularly at that age - to develop a sense
of what is 'normal' and what is not. On top of that, there
was not much to play with, so for want of something better
I used my sparse moments of leisure to turn myself inside
out. Perhaps something could be found in there, you know.
Extremely informative, but only in retrospect. At that moment
you never realize it's all for your own good." (2)
A little over two years after
moving to London, Schalken returned to the Netherlands with
the newly acquired insight that he was not suited for the
stage-arts. The spitzen and maillot were exchanged for pencils
and brush-es, for hammer and saw, and for his very first camera,
the "Agfa-clack". This was the moment when Schalken
found the tools with which he would shape his future career.
In 1988, barely seventeen, Schal-ken decided to leave for
Mexico, where he would remain for nearly three years. Particularly
relevant for his artistic development was the period Schalken
spent in Veracruz, where he decorated the dancing girls' stage
in a local nightclub - a period Schalken later often referred
to as: "catching a glimpse of the big picture."
(3)
Back in the Netherlands, Schalken
took several jobs to earn his keep. Among other things he
was a welder at one of the country's many shipyards; he designed
garden gnomes for a garden gnome company; he was a test-subject
for a sleeping experiment; and he worked as an assistant armorer.
In his free hours Schal-ken laid the foundation on which his
steadily expanding oeuvre has been built. Increasing interest
in his work has allowed Schalken a proportional increasing
autonomy in the years since.
Schalken is currently leading a secluded life in the south
of the Netherlands, with his youngest daughter Nora, their
horse Jonas, their pony Puck, Mrs. Hekking the goat, their
kittens Zip & Zap (who currently have to share their food
with a hedgehog), and their dog Braaf.
"I like drawing. A lot. I like drawing stories. I like
building stuff. Sculpting, building stories. And I like decorating
the barn door. I like building Nora a treehouse. I like making
grilled salmon with goat's cheese, honey, coriander, and roasted
pine-nuts. I like sitting next to Jonas after a long ride
and watching him graze and telling him stories while he gives
me the occasional glance, you know: 'Don't you have better
things to do?' No Jonas. I don't." (4)
Natasha Boudié
(1) The artist, in an interview
with Patrick Morceau, L'Art Force.
(2) The artist in conversation with Natasha Boudié.
"I still enjoy dancing. At times I practice some of the
basic positions. Or I just swirl around in the pasture with
Puck and Jonas on my tail, performing the latest thing."
(3) The artist quoted in Catherine Millar's New Heroes, Go
Tell the Mountain: The Art of Tobias T. Schalken. "His
work is still characterized by a sultry, voyeuristic atmosphere
with a sexual undercurrent and a mystical rituality wherein
the loss of innocence and the ways upon which man wrestles
his fate are important themes."
(4) The artist in conversation with Natasha Boudié.
> www.eiland.cc
> www.tobiasschalken.com
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