Cocoon II 2015

Eckart Hahn made this unnerving painting, Cocoon II, without any date attached. It looks like oil, rendered with incredible precision. I wonder what Hahn was thinking when he dreamt up this image of a tethered bird, and the contrast between the precision of the painting and the surrealist imagery gets to me. Look at the ropes, how they constrict the bird. Look at the branch with a very bright red perch. Are those streaks of blood? The bird’s feathers are painted in such detail, you can feel the artist’s careful observation. Yet Hahn also disrupts this realism with unsettling details. We can see the influence of artists like Magritte, and I like how Hahn’s practice encourages us to question perception and reality. Each artist engages in this ongoing visual conversation, influencing and building upon the ideas of those who came before. Hahn’s "Cocoon II" embraces ambiguity, inviting multiple interpretations and meanings.