Mickey 2015

Curator: This is "Mickey," a mixed-media work by Eckart Hahn, created in 2015. It immediately strikes me as surreal. What's your impression? Editor: An uneasy glamour. Those glossy, constrained surfaces—the mylar balloon, those surgical gloves—speak volumes about contemporary consumerism and its discontents. Curator: Precisely. The use of the golden balloon is really intriguing. Balloons have long been associated with celebration and childhood joy. Its golden hue alludes to value, or a false idol, now held tightly. What about those white gloves, seemingly attached to ropes? Editor: Right, the hands. Sterilized, disconnected labor. And those almost cartoonishly thick ropes—they give a sense of suspension, but also constraint. The pressure is almost palpable. Curator: Hahn seems to be hinting at manipulation and control here, both the manipulation of objects and perhaps, by extension, the manipulation of desires. Do you find the symbolism heavy-handed? Editor: Not necessarily, but I am captivated by the almost obsessive rendering of surface textures: the balloon’s crinkled sheen against the smooth gloves, contrasted to the matte table surface. One wonders about Hahn’s specific choices in the mixed-media application to achieve that. Curator: His technique draws from traditions of both realism and surrealism to create these strange portraits. Hahn's "Mickey" seems to want to reveal the strangeness embedded in seemingly mundane objects. It echoes a darker side of celebrations, that almost excessive consumer drive and how this shapes meaning. Editor: Indeed, the image functions like a pressure cooker; shiny yet contained, suggesting anxiety surrounding value and physical experience. A sort of beautiful terror, if you will. Curator: It makes you question the meaning we attribute to these manufactured desires and what, ultimately, remains when they're grasped so tightly. Editor: And to remember the many skilled hands required to produce that fleeting shine.