I Was Listening 

Curator: "I Was Listening" by Cathrine Edlinger-Kunze, painted with acrylic on canvas. It has a rather ambiguous style – figurative elements blend with abstraction. What’s your immediate take? Editor: Melancholy. The palette is muted, and those figures seem burdened, lost in thought. I'm struck by that heavy orange drum—it almost seems to vibrate with suppressed energy. Curator: It's intriguing how Edlinger-Kunze uses those colours, creating what I think is a dreamscape effect. Drums often signify communication or ritual. Here, though, it’s as if the sound has faded, underscoring the sense of listening…or the absence of it. Editor: Right. It’s narrative-art that's stripped down to almost archetypal symbols. Notice how that distant, almost sketch-like landscape—with the bending horses—exists apart from the more solidly painted figures? Are we looking at different realities? What societal forces may have led to the quiet resignation emanating from the canvas? Curator: That sketchiness reminds me of faded memory, like half-recalled stories shaping our present. The figure with the harlequin hat looks like he’s bearing a weighty secret, and the woman’s pose echoes classical reclining nudes, but without any of the implied joy or invitation. Editor: Perhaps the drum represents the tradition, a cultural or familial beat, while their stillness shows a refusal or inability to engage with it. There’s a real tension here, particularly with such understated colour choices. One wonders if this speaks to intergenerational disconnection or perhaps societal disengagement during politically turbulent times? Curator: That's a valid read; maybe "listening" means hearing the echoes of the past without truly understanding them, creating this sense of isolation. There’s this emotional distance rendered by abstracted figures as the painting wrestles with the very idea of cultural continuity, don’t you think? Editor: Definitely. "I Was Listening" feels more like a lament – the acknowledgment of a breakdown in communication or understanding. An open, political commentary or emotional journal that is an expression of individual alienation against universal belonging. Curator: It gives you pause and prompts reflection about what truly it means to understand and respond to the past, to one another, and the society we are shaping. Editor: It's the sort of piece that leaves you pondering long after you’ve moved on. The silence speaks loudly, right?