Banners No. I 1980

Editor: So, here we have John Christie’s "Banners No. I" from 1982, currently in the Tate Collection. It looks like a print with two distinct sections, the upper featuring a patterned field, the lower showcasing a folded piece of cloth. I'm struck by the contrast of the patterned and the plain. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, let's consider the process. The printmaking itself, the labor involved in creating multiple impressions, and what these images might be meant to "print" on the viewer. The cloth…what's its materiality? What was its purpose before its artistic representation? Editor: It makes me wonder if the cloth was, or became, part of the printmaking process somehow. Like, was it used to wipe away ink? Curator: Precisely! The means of production are right there, echoed in the image. It challenges the separation of the art object from the tools of its creation. Editor: That’s a really interesting perspective, to think about the materials not just as subject matter, but as active agents in the artwork's creation. Curator: Indeed. It makes you consider the artist’s labor and the choices behind the visible and the concealed aspects of artmaking.