[no title] 1968

Curator: This intriguing image by Harold Cohen, created in 1968, draws the eye immediately to its focus on hands. What is your initial reaction? Editor: It feels monumental, almost geological. The textures are so exaggerated, and the light is theatrical. Are those hands reaching, or falling? Curator: The ambiguity is definitely part of its power. Cohen, particularly during this period, was deeply interested in exploring the body as a site of both vulnerability and strength. Editor: Yes! And the chromatic tension, that dark ground against the bright blue…it heightens the sense of unease. It’s like a close-up of raw emotion, right there in the flesh. Curator: Considering Cohen's later work with artificial intelligence, I see these hands also as a reflection on human touch, on our capacity to both create and potentially destroy. Editor: So, in the end, we are left with something powerful and a little unnerving. I see it as a visceral reminder of our own embodied existence. Curator: Indeed. It challenges us to reconsider the fundamental nature of human interaction, a theme as relevant today as it was in 1968.