Moment by Moment 1967

Simo Hannula made this print in 1967 using etching, and it looks like it was a moment of great energy! I can imagine the artist hunched over a metal plate, working and reworking it. He’s using needles and acid to bite into its surface and create a constellation of marks that seem to suggest a landscape or perhaps an interior space. There are these spiky lines that shoot out in all directions, and they almost feel like an explosion of thought or emotion. Maybe he was thinking about the light in Finland, the long nights, and the stark beauty of the Nordic landscape. Or maybe he was just riffing and letting the materials take over! I love how the shapes form and dissolve—a kind of organized chaos! It reminds me of work by other experimental printmakers like Krishna Reddy, who also pushed the boundaries of the medium. The ambiguity is the point. It’s not about knowing exactly what it is, but about experiencing the raw, unfiltered energy of the artist’s hand.