Art’s utility player

Polish your grandma’s treasured silverware; straighten—or don’t—the contorted cutlery caught in the garbage disposal; whatever your approach, artist Gioia Fonda wants Sacramento to give a fork. Ten thousand forks, to be exact.

Fonda, an artist and art professor at Sacramento City College, works primarily in mediums such as painting, drawing, sewing and photography. Some of her pieces exist on a grand scale—for example, she recently altered a kitchen in the historic Jade Apartments for February’s sold out, temporary art exhibit, Art Hotel, by transforming her assigned room into a bright and colorful retro-style space with light pink walls decorated with dozens of forks.

Now she’s thinking big by picking up the small utensils again. Last summer, Fonda became one of three local artists awarded a $10,000 grant by the Crocker Art Museum’s Block by Block initiative. The grants are aimed at engaging communities typically underrepresented by the Crocker by creating provocative art experiences that represent city council Districts 2, 5 and 8. Fonda will use her funds to create “Give a Fork,” an interactive art project that will address food deserts, nutrition, urban gardening, food insecurity and food culture.

Block by Block’s other grant winners are Anthony Padilla, an artist known for scaling 10-foot ladders with cans of spray paint, and the hip-hop collective, ZFG (Zero Forbidden Goals). Padilla’s “Solar Poppy” installation will bloom in North Sacramento as a way to spark a discussion about solar power. Meanwhile, the members of ZFG are busy creating a mobile stage with audio and projection systems that will help the group host its pop-up spoken-word series #TheMostOpenMicInTheCity.

Fonda says the grant’s mission to fund social practice art appealed to her.

“Social practice artwork can be so many different things,” Fonda says. “The concept behind it is that you’re getting art out into the public in a way that is not having people go to a gallery or a museum. It’s supposed to be more accessible in terms of just people running into it.”

Social practice artwork often includes community involvement, she adds. “Give a Fork” doesn’t just represent a clever play on words, it also aims to raise awareness about hunger and food culture in District 5, which includes neighborhoods in south Land Park, Lawrence Park, Colonial Heights and others.

The Crocker Art Museum’s Dea Montelongo, art corps fellow for the Block by Block initiative, says Fonda’s drive and passion were just two factors that caught the panel’s attention.

“We had about 27 submissions, but her project stood out because of the level of community engagement and involvement,” Montelongo says. “With the lack of access to quality food and the food desert in that area, we thought this would be a great project for District 5.”

In District 5, places to purchase fresh groceries are few and far between in some areas.

Fonda’s finished structure, set for completion by July 31, will be constructed entirely of donated forks and hang on a steel gate-like form with each silver utensil twinkling. Its location has yet to be determined but Fonda says she has her eye on a particular brick wall in Oak Park.

With the installation’s location still in the works, Fonda is focused on collecting forks.

“I want people to think big,” she says. “I’ll take forks from anywhere.”

In December, Fonda launched a GoFundMe campaign through which she’s soliciting funds (to offset the costs not covered by the grant) and forks. Now, she says, donated utensils are showing up practically everywhere. Whether it’s bundles left anonymously on her porch, forks passed to her in the hallways of City College or the utensils she finds randomly during her daily bicycle commute, the pieces are steadily trickling in.

And, she adds, she can’t resist a shiny fork that catches her eye from the gutter.

“I pick up everything in the road,” she says. In fact, whatever that “everything” might be—coat hangers, for example—often travels around with her in a tote bag.

But why, exactly, forks?

“A fork is a really personal item. It’s been in people’s mouths. It’s been with them through family occasions and dinners,” Fonda says.

The scope of the sculpture will depend on how many of these utilitarian mementos she receives.

“The more forks I get, the bigger the sculpture will be. I keep throwing out the number 10,000 just because I think that conveys to people that I need a lot.”

Fonda’s count currently adds up to about 1,000 pieces. Sure, it would be easier for Fonda to buy 10,000 four-pronged utensils to construct her vision, but then the social engagement factor would be lost.

Instead, she’s asked her community for help. Volunteer groups go door to door to collect forks for the cause, former students raised money at Super Bowl parties to donate to the GoFundMe page and community centers like the Colonial Heights Library and the Oak Park Community Center are two active drop-off locations.

Every fork, in Fonda’s eyes, is a unique component of her “Give a Fork” puzzle, with each telling a story about the donor’s relationship with food; Fonda is quick to draw a likeness from the variety of forks she receives to the diverse scope of people who donate them.

“These forks are like humans. I’m getting the weirdest variety of forks,” she says. “I’m getting weird, little pickle forks, fondue forks. I think people are giving me strange forks because they want to be able to identify their fork in the sculpture, and that’s OK.”

One former art student of Fonda’s, Debra Mendes, has collected the most forks so far, hitting the pavement in south Land Park with a group of eight volunteers. Think door-to-door gospel, but instead of someone knocking to speak about God, this group just wants to talk about Fonda’s project and social practice art.

“We collected 170 forks on that day [and] altogether, I have probably collected about 330 forks on my own from family members and various people,” Mendes says.

For Fonda, such canvassing and conversations are key. As a nine-year resident of Lawrence Park, a neighborhood nestled between Stockton Boulevard and 28th Avenue, she says the dearth of grocery stores stands in stark contrast to the area’s abundance of liquor and convenience shops.

Still, Fonda believes, “If we ask for better, we can get it.” To that end, she hopes the completed installation will spark a dialogue.

“I think that we’re all foodies. We all love to eat and there’s really great secret treasures in all neighborhoods, we just need to recast that,” she says. “Being interested in food isn’t just for hipsters—everyone should be interested in food because we have to think about it several times a day.”

The “Give a Fork” installation will hang strong for three years. After that, chunks will be sold to restaurants and other businesses, while the remaining pieces will be donated to community gardens and schools.

Fonda’s GoFundMe campaign will continue through April and when it’s done she’ll turn to the painstaking work of drilling tiny holes into each fork in May.

“Once they’re all moving and you see how many are all together, it makes a big statement,” she says of the sculpture. “Imagine that whole wall covered in them. I think it will look really cool.”