Moko Fukuyama creates large-scale sculptures from salvaged trees, often shaping her work in response to the natural forms of the wood. Drawing from her background as a recreational sports-fisher, Menegerie takes the shape of a fishing tackle box. Inside its open steel frame sits a lively array of hand-carved, brightly painted wooden forms that resemble lures, crafted from a fallen oak tree once rooted outside her Brooklyn home. Influenced by scenic art and custom car aesthetics, the vibrant surface treatments of the oversized lures are eye-catching and animate.
Fukuyama is interested in themes of human desire, consumption, and sustainability. She writes, “I began incorporating the idea of “lures” into my sculptural practice when I started recreational sport-fishing several years ago. I was intrigued by how lures—which play on the fish’s hyper-sensitivity to water temperature, light, and pressure—function to court fish in their native environments. The angler’s gamble, I came to realize, requires knowing the rules of attraction.”¹ Fukuyama is also inspired by her upbringing in Japan, and she draws on Shintoism, a belief system that embraces a reverence for nature.
¹https://www.mokofukuyama.com/tackle-box
About Moko Fukuyama
Moko Fukuyama was born in 1981 in Chiba, Japan. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her BFA at Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN, and also studied at AICAD: New York Studio Program, New York, NY, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. She has created outdoor installations at venues including Socrates Sculpture Park, Franconia Sculpture Park, Al Held Foundation, Lighthouse Works, and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. From 2020 to 2022, Fukuyama participated in the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), where she was celebrated as their studio honoree. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2022 and a NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in 2024.