Pinokkio opgehangen 1979

Dirkje Kuik made this etching, 'Pinokkio opgehangen', which translates as 'Pinocchio Hung', at an unknown date. It’s all delicate, scratchy marks in monochrome, forming these ghostly figures wearing pointy hats. You can almost hear the scratching of the needle on the plate. It’s like a whispered secret, a shared anxiety. I can just imagine Kuik hunched over the etching plate, her hand moving with a kind of controlled frenzy. I wonder what she was thinking about? The texture is amazing; each tiny line feels deliberate yet frantic. There's a lot of heavy darkness. The way those hats droop and sag is quite expressive, conveying a feeling of melancholy. It reminds me a little of Ensor’s masks, and the way he used to paint his demons. Artists are always in conversation with one another, across time, inspiring each other's nightmares and dreams. The beauty of etching is that it embraces ambiguity, each line alive with potential meaning.