Crystal Castle 2016

Editor: Eckart Hahn's "Crystal Castle," painted in 2016 with acrylics, is arresting, isn't it? The realism, combined with these otherworldly geometric shapes, is kind of magical. It has the visual precision of technical illustration while still evoking such an abstract presence. How do you even begin to interpret something like that? Curator: It feels to me like Hahn's mining the fantastic geology of the imagination. The hard-edged shapes painted with such realism – and the vibrant colours bleeding through – create this collision of the familiar and the utterly alien. What is a crystal if not nature’s own abstraction, a solid form arising out of utter randomness? Do you feel a bit of romanticism pushing its way into this piece? Editor: I can see the romanticism in how it uses realistic depiction to convey surreal content and visual sensation. Where do you think his work fits in historically? Curator: I’d wager Hahn sits rather comfortably at the junction of Surrealism and Modernism. Echoes of early abstractionists exploring geometric form are here, alongside Surrealism’s commitment to rendering the unreal in hyperreal terms, all touched by a hypermodern clarity. I suppose a core question for me becomes, can you create fantasy that somehow seems familiar, grounded? Editor: Absolutely. This work balances familiarity and the alien, a blend of geometric order and imagined landscapes, all within the texture of painted acrylic. It presents realism as one component in its creative project of world-building, something quite fascinating when you pause to reflect upon the role of the medium itself. Curator: Exactly. Hahn uses something as commonplace as acrylic paint to conjure this vision of pristine otherworldliness. It's almost… subversive. This conversation gave me such an appreciation for Hahn’s process. It truly becomes like seeing for the first time again. Editor: Same here! Seeing those familiar, sharp-edged acrylic lines, reimagined, takes me away to unexpected places.