Bright Film Surfer 28x22in Mixed Media on Paper 2017

Curator: We're looking at David Michael Hinnebusch's "Bright Film Surfer," a mixed media work on paper from 2017. The piece is roughly 28 by 22 inches. Editor: My immediate impression is energy and vibrancy. The colours practically leap off the surface, though they’re grounded by what appears to be collaged paper elements beneath. Curator: Exactly. There's a fascinating tension here. The dynamism of the brushstrokes—look at the confident curves suggesting movement around the figure—clashes with the rigid grid of the under layers, creating a visually stimulating paradox. Do you find this interesting from a production angle? Editor: Absolutely. The collage underpinning gives the image a history, a context built of printed matter. I'm wondering what this source material might tell us? It's hinting at newspaper, photographs… ephemera of contemporary life. What's particularly compelling to me is the overt flatness versus the suggested movement – that sense of surfing captured within the collage-based ground. Curator: The work embraces several techniques. The gesture, those graffiti-inspired explosions of colour… Consider how the artist manipulates line. There's this pink, seemingly simple figure, outlined sketchily, but somehow also confident. Editor: The materials speak of process, don’t they? Layer upon layer, a record of the making. The dripping paint, visible collage edges… The piece declares itself as made, constructed. This isn't an illusionistic window, it’s a collection of gestures. It invites contemplation around the materiality of mark making itself, and how context embedded within matter, in the case of newspapers or pictures for example, inform its creation. Curator: Perhaps even a play on the ephemerality of surfing—a fleeting moment rendered semi-permanent through these robust material choices. It does, if only to me, invoke themes around pop art. There is also this abstract energy—perhaps suggesting how surfing involves being attuned to something bigger. Editor: Right. Each application of paint or layer of paper is evidence of labor, building toward a cumulative visual effect. Ultimately, this image gives an appreciation of time passing and decision-making – through the materiality. Curator: Precisely, an assemblage of visual language creating a multi-layered artwork. Editor: Yes, quite fascinating. It makes you wonder how digital workflows are influencing work like this - where an original is the "end product" or at least "artifact" from which image multiplies digitally, echoing mass production that came before us!