Nachtfalke 2013

Editor: Eckart Hahn's "Nachtfalke" from 2013, an acrylic on canvas, is certainly... striking. The stark contrast between the smooth surfaces and the almost unsettlingly solid bird creates a bizarre and somewhat humorous tension. How would you interpret this collection of objects? Curator: What I immediately notice is the constructed nature of the objects depicted. Acrylic paint, a distinctly modern medium, has been employed to meticulously render a collection of commodities—or facsimiles thereof. Observe how the artist calls our attention to the production of hyper-realistic paintings and decorative art. Does that shift your understanding of what Hahn might be communicating? Editor: I see what you mean! So rather than just accepting the image as is, we’re meant to consider the materials and the labor involved in making it? But how does that relate to the objects themselves? Curator: Consider the owl itself. Its striking darkness might point to traditional power structures and social dominance, while the pink block beneath and crumpled gold package gesture to consumer culture and fleeting value. It really gets you thinking about what we consume, doesn’t it? Are you tempted to challenge that notion? Editor: Well, I suppose it's easy to jump to conclusions about consumerism. But maybe it's about the juxtaposition of organic and inorganic, natural and artificial. The material reality feels almost beside the point. Curator: Precisely. And it’s in that friction that the commentary resides. Hahn prompts us to reflect on the relationship between nature, the manufactured, and, ultimately, how meaning is constructed through artistic processes. How our values become ingrained through visual imagery. It becomes a meditation on both material conditions and image-making. Editor: I appreciate how you've connected the materials and the making process to the social commentary. Now I am seeing new levels of interpretation that engage and challenge common cultural assumptions about beauty, art, and value. Curator: Excellent. It is imperative we reflect upon the conditions of making. What is this, how was it made, what meanings become ascribed during artistic rendering?