Projects
Gerda Van Damme is mainly working on 3 projects:
The Way We Were
First there is her archiving painting project, "The way we were", exhibited in various group exhibitions. In this context, she also started a series of black-and-white pictures, respecting the typical dimensions of amateur photos of the past, while reframing what she finds to draw the essential. In the works of this project she examines the memories, the past and the loss it represents.
Picture: 2 paintings from "The Miniature Series".
Half empty
There is also her project “Half empty” which is has been exhibited solo at the Cultural Center and in the Church of Mount Carmel in Thuin in July 2021: we are halfway on a dead end street, we are “half empty ”. Here she explores themes related to death, mourning, despair, cruelty, pain, revealing what we normally try to hide in the “catacombs of our subconscious”.
Picture: "A moitié vide" exhibition at the Church Notre Dame du Mont Carmel in Thuin.
Salons de la Naiveté
In the past she also worked on a third project, which she is planning to revive soon, the "Salons de la Naïveté". A new form of naïve art, which has little to no link to what is commonly called this way, but which is deeply rooted in childhood and a form of escapism.
Picture: Installation "The Garden of Eden" at the "Salon van de Naïviteit" at Cultural Center "De Spuye" in Leuven, 1989.
