Dream Home 2014

Zoe Hawk's 'Dream Home' is a contemporary painting with acrylics, and I find it so compelling, mostly because of its strangeness and the surreal juxtaposition of images. I imagine Zoe Hawk building this image slowly and meticulously, almost like she's constructing a stage set. I bet there's a lot of planning that goes into these paintings. The surface looks smooth, but what about the little girl? She's about to disappear below ground. She makes me think about how kids see the world, like one big game of hide and seek. I bet Zoe was a kid that liked to explore, go into the woods, and play with the weird kids. There is a whole history of art and play – of how artists can build ideas together and inspire one another. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. So you don't need to know what Zoe Hawk is trying to say or mean, you can feel it.