Yi Ying 2019

Eckart Hahn made Yi Ying, a puzzle-like image of birds made of disparate elements. I can imagine him, in the studio, a chaotic space full of images, cutting out shapes and colours, rearranging them, losing some, finding others, until these birds emerged. There’s something so playful in the way Hahn has constructed these birds. Each one is like a collage of different species, their feathers pieced together from various sources. It’s as if Hahn is saying, ‘What if a bird could be all birds at once?’ What if a bird could be made of painting? I love how the colours clash and harmonize, how the textures shift from smooth to rough. The birds feel alive, not in a realistic sense, but in a painterly sense. You know, Hahn’s work reminds me of Picabia, who also liked to play with images and ideas, creating paintings that are both beautiful and absurd. Artists are magpies, picking up shiny things from everywhere and making nests.