Count To Ten 2018

Curator: Stepping into the world of Zoe Hawk, we encounter "Count To Ten," an oil painting completed in 2018. At first glance, what comes to mind for you? Editor: Hmm... it's unsettlingly calm, right? Like a snapshot of childhood that's just a bit...off. There's this eerie quiet, despite what looks like a game being played. A dreamlike feeling maybe mixed with a little darkness. Curator: Hawk's work often engages with these tensions. She presents childhood not as idyllic innocence but as a complex stage filled with social pressures and internal struggles. Consider how games become social allegories. Editor: Right! There's a group of young women at night playing blind man’s bluff… or hide and seek… yet each has an individual stillness, each a quiet solitude in their little narrative world within this outdoor nighttime scenario. What game are they actually playing? What are they up to? Curator: The composition further emphasizes this sense of staged unease. The palette creates a subdued mood. What purpose does the white cat next to the kneeling young lady next to the stairway serve, perhaps something pure in this moment, in opposition to all this dramatic narrative tension. Editor: And it looks pretty… pristine somehow, which against this tableau of other various tensions adds to my anxiety! I can see it also highlighting the power of light and shadow playing here. And how Hawk creates movement. Notice the young lady in light blue leaping forward... ready to confront what unseen tension? She certainly isn't seeking in any game, maybe seeking retribution. And of course there is always the unknown horror of the small mound of soil… or worse... Curator: Hawk’s artistic style often explores girlhood within constrained social constructs, questioning both historical and contemporary roles. Consider the influence of fairy tales and classic literature and how gender shapes these young lives. Editor: I like this blend, because everything gets interpreted on multiple levels. And the real magic lives there. It also reflects real life: a multi-layered sense of being a kid with a real grown-up world looming about. Curator: Absolutely, it’s a work that lingers in the mind long after you've viewed it, unsettling and deeply familiar at once. Editor: Makes you re-count everything. I love that kind of art.