Bengt Hokanson
658 Clear Creek Road • Burnsville, NC 28714 • 631.604.2906 E-Mail
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Bengt Hokanson graduated from Tulane University in 1993 with an anthropology degree and a minor in glass blowing. His large mixed media sculpture incorporating blown and cast glass with materials such as carved wood, fabricated metal and found objects explore a clashing ground between modern industry and nature.
Since 1987, my work has been inspired by industrial objects and forms in nature. I fabricate organic, abstract reproductions of these industrial objects out of new materials such as blown and cast glass, steel, carved wood, cast metals and found objects. I accentuate the surface qualities of these materials, incorporating their tactile properties with the respective forms. I often recreate the surface of one media (for example burned wood) in another (cast glass).
The new assemblages are clearly abstract and create their own existence, yet they reference their respective origins. Through a guttural and often whimsical aesthetic the work forces questions about their origin and purpose. One may come to view the physical qualities of a material as it takes on a quality you have never seen before. The constructions themselves may push you to think differently about its primary purpose.