Mara-cle 2017

Editor: So, this is "Mara-cle" by David Michael Hinnebusch from 2017. It's a mixed-media piece, looks like watercolor and collage... There's a fascinating push and pull between the portrait and the abstraction. It feels playful, almost like a deconstructed memory. What stands out to you? Curator: I'm drawn to the layering – it's more than just visual; it hints at layers of identity, wouldn't you agree? Notice how the face is both present and fragmented. Consider the psychological impact of that visual fracturing. Is the artist trying to convey a sense of a fractured self? Editor: That's interesting...a fractured self. I hadn't considered it in that light. It almost felt more like a celebration of different aspects of the same person. The way the colours clash and combine feels kind of joyous to me. Curator: Joyous, perhaps, but what are the implications of placing fragments of different eras, different textures together? Do they merge harmoniously or are they juxtaposed in deliberate contrast? Look at the headdress: figures layered and repeated. The cultural memory it invokes fascinates me. Editor: Oh wow, I hadn’t even noticed those tiny figures in the headdress before! So you see that as almost like... ancestral memories or something coming to the surface? Curator: Precisely! It makes you wonder what stories the artist is trying to tell, what lineage they are calling upon. And also, crucially, whose stories are included, and whose are omitted? What happens when we stitch our collective memory, our iconography together, this way? What new image emerges? Editor: This is so helpful, because when I first saw it, I only responded to the colours and the abstraction but didn't really consider all these cultural connections. Now I see there's much more to unpack! Curator: Exactly. Art, like memory, is rarely simple. It’s through considering these complex symbols that we gain a deeper understanding, wouldn't you say?