Idol Buzz 2017

Editor: This is David Michael Hinnebusch’s mixed-media painting, “Idol Buzz,” created in 2017. There's a striking rawness to the work, a certain unrestrained energy in the application of paint. What do you make of it? Curator: Well, first off, that title "Idol Buzz" pulls us in. An idol, right? Immediately, that term vibrates with centuries of layered meaning. We think religious icons, objects of worship...but it's "buzz," not "hymn." It speaks to the hyper-charged atmosphere around celebrity today. Hinnebusch isn't just presenting figures; he is hinting that celebrity is the modern day’s idol worship. Don’t you agree? Editor: I do, it definitely comes through. The visual cacophony and kind of flattened space feels really contemporary, and lends the artwork that quality. How would you describe the symbolism? Curator: Think of graffiti art as today’s cave paintings: a direct link to basic desires and storytelling. The artist has integrated graffiti with an oil painting of an icon to create cultural continuity through his own language, connecting with contemporary ideas about sex, fame, artifice, the very concepts represented through icons throughout time. What do you see echoed in the images themselves? Editor: I see that there is some deliberate distortion of the human form and I think it evokes something about the potential dangers surrounding iconography itself and idol worship, in general, for both of them. The faces are obscured somewhat; the female is idealized with very pronounced eyelashes. Are these types meant to symbolize figures in modern popular culture? Curator: Exactly. It isn't necessarily about specific celebrities but types; ideas represented again and again in a kind of cultural memory loop. Recognizing and understanding symbols makes viewing artworks all that more interesting, wouldn't you say? Editor: Definitely. I’m walking away with a new way of framing continuity of image in time, it definitely gives one something to think about.