Oxen Yoke c. 1938

This is Hans Mangelsdorf's drawing of an "Oxen Yoke" done sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Mangelsdorf was an artist living in a time of tremendous social and economic upheaval in Europe, where agricultural practices were encountering the rise of industrialization. At first glance, the drawing offers a straightforward illustration of a tool used for farming. But it's also a quiet document of labor, history, and the relationship between humans and animals. Consider the weight and the burden implied by this object. The yoke symbolizes the way labor is often unequally distributed, a metaphor perhaps for the social classes of Mangelsdorf's time. The drawing offers more than just a rendering; it invites a reflection on how we assign value, how we distribute labor, and how we negotiate our shared existence. It’s a connection to the past, an echo of the fields, farms, and animals that sustained life for centuries.