Warm Concrete, Cool Rosé 

Editor: We’re looking at "Warm Concrete, Cool Rosé" by Carrie Graber, in oil and acrylic paint. I'm struck by the way the artist juxtaposes the rough texture of the concrete against the smooth, almost dreamlike quality of the water and the figure. What elements draw your eye, and how do you see this piece? Curator: For me, the tension lies in the materials themselves and what they represent. "Warm Concrete, Cool Rosé" places industrial material, concrete, next to signifiers of leisure - a swimming pool, a woman in swimwear, rosé. I wonder how the means of producing this luxury contrast with the stark, unyielding reality of concrete production and its ties to labor? The work is about creating a scene from highly constructed material conditions. Editor: So you're saying that it's not just about the beautiful scene, but the implied labor behind it? Curator: Precisely! The artist utilizes oil and acrylics, mediums with their own historical baggage related to class and accessibility. Even the rosé isn't a simple choice – it signifies a particular lifestyle attainable by some but not others. How do you see the use of acrylic paint fitting into this landscape? Editor: I guess acrylic paint could reinforce the artificiality of it all, being a more synthetic material than oil? It gives it almost a poster-like, mass-produced feeling that contradicts the leisure depicted. I never really considered that the materiality of the scene has implications. Curator: Absolutely! Paying attention to materials exposes the inherent biases and power structures embedded in what we perceive as beautiful or desirable. That's the magic of materialist critique; everything comes from something and somewhere. Editor: It certainly makes you look at leisure in a completely different light! Thanks, I have learned something new.