Foof 2017

Curator: Woah, total sensory overload. It's like my brain just ate a rainbow sherbet. Editor: Precisely! We’re standing before “Foof,” a mixed-media work conjured in 2017 by David Michael Hinnebusch. Curator: "Conjured" feels spot on. This definitely didn't spring from careful planning. Look at that explosion of colors and textures, all battling for attention. It’s chaotic, right? Like a dream trying to claw its way into reality. Editor: You see chaos; I perceive primal urges bursting forth. Observe how Hinnebusch embraces the visual vocabulary of Fauvism, particularly its bold use of non-naturalistic color, while simultaneously nodding to naive art traditions. Those raw, expressive lines, the deliberately childlike quality, it's all saying something profound. Curator: You know, it reminds me a little of Basquiat too, maybe with a dash of early Picasso weirdness. The scribbles and the flattened perspective definitely pull me in. I'm trying to see some kind of pattern, but there isn't any... or maybe that's the point. It's unapologetically itself. Editor: Yes, there is no attempt to hide the messy or to smooth the unexpected! Consider the eyes in the image - how might they resonate across cultures? Are they protective, voyeuristic, inviting, warning... ? Hinnebusch harnesses this iconographic ambiguity deliberately to ignite the viewer's own emotional reactions. What unspoken tales are they echoing from our shared visual histories? Curator: Okay, that is a deep dive. But now I can’t stop thinking about eyes, always watching. Makes me want to grab some brushes and just fling paint around, y’know? Editor: The piece invites that reaction, I feel. Perhaps Hinnebusch is prompting us to face our own messy humanity, to embrace the discord and let our own “Foof” bubble to the surface. Curator: So, a permission slip to be a beautiful wreck? I'm in. Editor: Exactly! Thanks for opening your perception for all of us.