GERDA KRUIMER ⎪ PUNATICS selection
PUNATICS
e noho ma ka lua pele / living on a volcano
The artworks in the Punatic series are variations on a type. The title of the Punatic series is a reference to the people of the Puna district on Hawaii’s Big Island. They are building new houses on top of a black lava plain after recent volcanic eruptions, for economic reasons and uninsured despite the danger of another volcanic eruption. There are two active volcanoes on Big Island: Maunaloa, which last erupted in 1984 and and Kilauea, which last erupted in 2024. The housebuilders are called Punatics, a nickname from the combination Puna and lunatic. They build tightly and live self-sufficiently, partly off-grid.
The subtitle e noho ma ka lua pele / living on a volcano is a metaphor for my (our) daily life with ever-changing conditions.
I was on Big Island in 2017 and was impressed by the wideness of the lava plain and the willpower of these people to rebuild here. The blackness of the lava plain and the constructions of the (tiny) houses were a perfect match for my then recent constructive 3D Raster artworks and paintings in which I use a black background instead of a white.
The Punatics are 20x24cm, acrylic paint on plywood panel. To get the intense dark colours, blues and greens are painted in multiple layers.
The making of the Punatic Series started in late 2017 and is continuing as is the rebuilding on Big Island. Acrylic paint on plywood panel. To get the intense dark colors, I paint blue and green paint in many layers.
This function has been disabled for GERDA KRUIMER.