Hamlet 

Editor: This graphic art piece, titled "Hamlet" by John Austen, uses ink on paper in an Art Nouveau style, and the repeated use of a linear drawing style to delineate distinct vignettes evokes a Tarot card spread. What symbols strike you? Curator: Immediately, the sword-bearing figure shrouded in white recalls classic iconography of Justice, but displaced. The Art Nouveau style softens the figure and creates a subtle dissonance. Where would Justice appear within Hamlet? Editor: Maybe as an aspiration, rather than a reality, given the play’s tragic events? It’s like the other figures – the cupid, the faun, the ornamented heads – form an incomplete symbolic vocabulary, more decorative than declarative. Curator: Yes, and how might these symbols operate collectively? Individually they reference innocence, nature, vanity – a constellation of thematic threads. Perhaps this selection attempts to visually synthesize Hamlet's interiority, creating a psychodrama. Notice the framing of each isolated figure: do you think it hints at the individual’s detachment, internal conflicts, or maybe something else? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way! The isolated frames could represent how trapped each character is by fate. It makes you wonder if they could escape their role if the frames weren't so rigidly defined. Curator: Precisely! Austen uses established symbols, only to fragment and rearrange them. Through this recombination, older signs obtain new psychological reverberations. Seeing this "Hamlet," I realize symbols carry meanings that keep transforming across time. Editor: I now realize this artwork invites a new way to visually contemplate an established cultural narrative.