What kind of dialogue can arise when encountering Claudia Hirtl's "visual enigmas"? What kind of thoughts or reflections are evoked by Hirtl's art or what kind of sensations – beyond our cognitive perception – can be awakened?
There are undoubtedly signs in front of us: kanji borrowed from Japanese and partly also heavily alienated kanji are inserted in the multilayered pictorial text created with different compositions of pigments. Recognizing the kanji, if one succeeds in this, does not allow one much more progress than understanding the (sometimes given) title, which refers only to the conceptual concept underlying the Japanese sign. As scriptural as the images are on their surface, so profoundly related to writing or language the images are in their essence. One can comprehend the meaning of Hirtl's pictures only when the material components of the painting, the artist’s working process, and her intentionality are viewed in their entirety. |
