The artist Faye van de Vorst, also known as Foki, gives an insight about her working process and artworks. Her illustrations are characterized by a playful style, while also exploring the struggles we all face in our daily lives. Her work often explores the complexities of human relationships, with a keen eye for capturing the essence of her subjects. Read the interview to discover more.
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Kooness: What is the purpose of your artworks?
Faye: My aim with the Foki designs I create, is not to eroticise the female body but to accentuate the comicality of the demands that we and our bodies are imposed to live up to, Honestly, I just think it's funny, To be witty about body inequality empowers me, and hopefully a lot of others who identify as female.
K: Where do you find inspiration?
F: I seek for inspiration in the very subtle aspects of (love)life, I especially like to observe peoples love language, Recently, I travelled through Mexico where I was surprised by the queer representation, Since Mexico legalised same-sex marriage since December 31st, 2022, the country obviously opened up for the queer community to celebrate their holidays and it created such a beautiful vibe, I felt inspired by this eruption of queer people expressing their love in public space, Hence I'm working on my Oaxacan beach series right now, which derives from all the sketches I made at the beach, observing those lovers.
K: How do you make your artworks?
F: I always start with a pencil and a piece of paper; very simple yet very powerful, When I work with my hands I feel more intuitive due to the direct connection between me and my illustration, When the sketch is done I take a picture of it and I upload it onto Adobe Illustrator, I create a fluid line drawing from my sketch, when it's time to fool around with colours, I try to approach my colour use conceptually, referring to emotions, surroundings, bodies or whatever works for that particular artwork, so Illustrator is a great environment to try different schemes.
K: What is the artistic process behind your work?
F: The establishment of my work derives from a subconscious level, so it's hard to explain the exact process, but we can try, My work 'Women, laughing their tits off,' for example, How this sentence popped into my mind, and how I figured this to be worth an illustration, I don't remember, Anyway, it seemed to me a very funny picture, imagining these women laughing at society's patriarchal constructions so badly, their tits would prolapse, I watched random TV shows wherein female hosts doubled up with laughter while they were on air, since the oppressed laughter is the most illustrative, It resulted in a female gang, who are uproariously laughing at this thing what is - in my opinion - the most nonsensical and farcical construct of all time¦ patriarchy.
K: When is your favourite time of day to create?
F: At nighttime I seem to find more comfort and quietness to create, During the day I feel like I'm missing out when I don't get outside a little bit and surround myself with others, Besides that, my artistic practice isn't my fulltime job yet, so throughout the day I'm working on my other job, Therefore, I feel more calm when I'm creating at night, it's my spare time, so I'm free to do or create whatever I want.
Cover image: Foki. Others Saturated 1. Courtesy of Foki Art Gallery.
Written by Kooness
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