artist statement
VISUAL THINKING
viewing experiences originating from the wondering about an observation
Drawing to me, is a form of visual thinking in which its intrinsic value is the endpoint of each work. I make drawings as autonomous artworks. Drawing, physical and digital, is the basis for all my works.
During my study I was taught in blackboard sketching. As a final test, we had to pick an object to draw it into perspective with white chalk. The viewer should be able to see which format the object had in reality. I chose a small object that turned out, was bought in a store for electrical equipment. I had an object as example but I did not know what it represented. I could not determine the front or backside. The thin lines I made, were partly erased because of the scraping of my nails on the blackboard. A transparent drawing of approximately 50 x 50 cm of an object of 5 x 5 x 5 cm arose. Due to lack of time I did not finish it completely, the teacher felt sorry that it had to be obliterated. I could not make a photograph of it.
a drawing over the water
In my last year at the Art Academy, I participated in a competition for an assignment. The location was a water-filled ditch of 9 by 90 meters. On the photographs I made of the location, I drew lines on the water between the elements surrounding the ditch. It generated a play of lines on the photos that was broken by the reflection depicted on the water. It resulted in a design for a sculpture of 7 x 70 meters.
Since then I put lines on paper. Preferably with charcoal, graphite pencil or pen and ink and more recently with acrylic and gel pens.
My drawings originate partly as a result of the travels I make.
After a visit to the Mesquita in Cordoba, Spain I created the series, “non-hierarchical space”. This series represents a visualization of infinity through the horizontal architecture of the Mesquita.
During a journey through South America, I observed that many small towns are built in block pattern for strategic considerations. I translated this observation into a “bird’s-eye perspective” in my work. By using axonometry, I could neutralize differences in values. These drawings are boundless, unlimited and placed in the form of the square.
The lines become grids. In the “basic drawings” I place the different grids in superimposed layers. These grids are not measured out exactly as in a calculation script, they are not fixed patterns; everything beyond the edge of the drawing is unknown.
In the series, “Singularities” I abolish the overview but I try to keep the ‘non-hierarchical’. A singularity is, in general, a strangeness: something where the normal rules or laws are no longer valid or no longer can be used.
In “Simulacra”, the lines are just noticeably present. They refer to the occasionally but for a few seconds perceptive images within the constellation of illuminated signs in Times Square in New York, and within the vast landscape of Utah created by sun, clouds and wind.
“Undefined” is a collection of different works which are all partly made by using the computer. While working I photograph the unexpected, to process later on if necessary. Works get meaning because of the way they appear.
e noho ma ka lua pele / living on a volcano
After a trip in the summer of 2017 I made new grid drawings in which I changed the system from inside. From these drawings I made small wall objects: variations on a type, reduced to the essence. The title of these small works: “Punatics”, is a reference to an area where people started building houses on top of a black lava plain for economic reasons. Punatics they are called. They build tight and funny and live self-supporting, off-grid. The subject leads to new modest reduced work, these artworks do not refer to anything other than itself.
“3D Grids”, grids and positioning:
“The mathematical arrangement of our environment within a coordinate system gave man an instrument to conquer the world and expand our power. The greatest power was then in the center from which all lines were drawn and towards the borders she took away. This created a hierarchical space. It seems that dividing is at the basis of all reality itself, both that of man and that of the outside world”.
The underlying idea for all my grid works is individual positioning. Using a constructive approach, I create an open spatiality in horizontal and vertical lines. If you adjust yourself mentally, you can move between those lines.
“3D Soft Grids”
Some years ago during a summer holiday in Tuscany in Italy, I saw a lot of orange mesh used for protection during construction work. This product was not used in the Netherlands at the time. I was fascinated by it and often photographed it. At home, I didn’t know what to do with it, until a few years later everything fell into place. In summer 2019, in a duo-exhibition I showed an earlier large wall-hanging work: 3D Grid 2007 (5,7X1,2X0,8 metres). While installing it, I saw new possibilities in relation to the protective mesh. I explored and combined the different options, resulting in the series 3D Soft Grids. These works are three-dimensional, hand-cut and printed with eco-inks on flexible recyclable foil.
The “3D Soft Grids” are a renewed attempt to create a “non-hierarchical” space through a uniform grid.
Then the corona pandemic came and I was asked to design a protective mask for the Covimetry Exhibitions. I made a design using the grid of the orange protection mesh. While exploring possibilities in recent years and because of the personal medical situation in my family, I sometimes make works related to protection such as the design Constructive Flower Motif for an auxiliary bridge in Amsterdam . The latest variations are the Four-Leaf Clover Gridflower, a work taped directly on the wall in Dourdan in France and the small Red Gridflower drawings, a reference to the patterns my mother used for making clothes for her children.
to be continued
Gerda Kruimer, Penséesauvages Dourdan 2024 photo by Lies de Wolf