Miniature Pedestal Bowl 

Curator: We’re looking at a Miniature Pedestal Bowl currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is an earthenware vessel, associated with Aztec art. Editor: It has this very tactile, almost ancient feeling. The terracotta colour and roughly textured surface—you just want to reach out and touch it, even though I know we absolutely shouldn't. There is this wonderful earthy tone to the whole object, despite the wear and what looks like damage over the centuries. Curator: Right. The form, though simple, speaks volumes about its cultural role. Given the location where it’s now exhibited, within a major Western institution, we can analyze its display through postcolonial frameworks. What does it mean to display a bowl originally crafted for ritualistic or daily life purposes, now divorced from its original context, in a museum setting? Editor: Precisely. We have to consider whose voices are privileged through the acquisition and display of this piece. I’m drawn to the function the bowl may have had. What role did it play within the lives of people from a culture that existed long before its enshrinement here? Was it a serving dish, a place for ritual offerings, something else? Curator: The lack of specific dating actually leaves this open to interpretation, adding complexity to how the institution may understand or even wish to understand it. It emphasizes its anonymity in a way, placing value perhaps only on form rather than the human experience. Editor: Also the size. Calling it miniature raises important questions about scale and access. Was it meant for personal use? The details seem intentionally small and modest, suggesting intimacy. The three holes pierced at the bottom prompt my imagination, were these designed for airflow, possibly used in burning some type of material? Curator: The politics of imagery are crucial here. Consider how its original purpose becomes secondary to its aesthetic appeal once it's placed on display. Editor: Reflecting on its historical context definitely gives the bowl more depth. Now I find myself thinking beyond its present containment within the Met and more on the original function it possessed. Curator: And considering who and how it ended up there, how objects and histories get re-contextualized depending on whose hands hold the object at the time, adds crucial layers of complexity to something we see as being fairly humble.