Jonas Vereecke

Up until a few years ago, Halloween, being a typical American tradition was pretty unkown down here in Belgium, Europe. But now the commercial market is introducing the feast into our lives by selling all kinds of Halloween merchandise in European shops. Every year I'm getting more Halloween minded around the end of october. So I started thinking about cutting my first Jack-o-lantern (ever!). I wanted to visualise the Euro-American symbiosis into a original piece. I really love art, so why not cut out a famous European painting, I thought. Vincent Van Gogh is probably one of the world's most famous painters, but sunflowers and Halloween don't really match, do they? No problem 'cause it wasn't my favourite Van Gogh anyway. Vincents painting I've always liked the most is definately "De Aardappeleters" or "Potatoeaters" because of the intense atmosphere it sends out to the viewer. It shows some Dutch farmers eating potatoes they've just harvested. The scene is set in october-november, right before winter falls (around Halloween), when people also eat the pumpkins they've grown. The lack of light, the shadows and the worn faces make the image very intense and allmost scary. In fact this scene is not very far of my own roots. My grandparents lived most of their lives in similar conditions, having been simple farmers themselves. Even my parents grew up like this, before they came to the city to study at the University as the first in the family to do so. Could I have chosen a better image to cut out a pumpkin? I don't think so. "The Pumpkineaters" was born!


Technical details:
Title: "De Pompoeneters" (aka "The Pumpkineaters")
Artist: Jonesky (Jonas Vereecke)
Substance: Pure and raw pumpkin
Tools used: Needle and scalpel
Diameter: +/- 30 centimeters (12 inches)
Hours of labour: approx. 7
Light source: 25 watt bulb