Night's Strangers 1967

Simo Hannula made this etching, Night's Strangers, in 1967, and it’s a dense, dark, and mysterious world he's created! The composition is a real swirl of marks, a visual tapestry woven with lines, shapes, and textures. I imagine him bent over the plate, using needles, acids, and all sorts of tools to scratch and bite into the metal. It's a physical process, full of happy accidents. There’s this one ladder that reaches up into the unknown. It’s wonky and off-kilter, not going anywhere in particular, but it’s a perfect visual metaphor for the artistic process itself. Hannula’s work feels related to other artists exploring similar psychological spaces and maybe he was in conversation with them, trying to make sense of things. Ultimately, this print invites us to embrace the enigmatic, to find beauty in the unresolved, and to recognize that sometimes, not knowing is the most interesting place to be.