Untitled (large US Air Force rocket) c. 1950

Curator: Glimpsed here in Jack Gould's photograph, "Untitled (large US Air Force rocket)," there's such a stoic presence, the subject just looms. What are your first thoughts? Editor: It’s about cold war anxiety rendered in steel. The rocket, the architecture behind it; it’s all about state power and industrial might, captured in a tidy little rectangle. Curator: Absolutely. I wonder about the labor. Who built that thing? How many hands shaped that metal, fueled by dreams and anxieties? Editor: Exactly. From the mined ore to the finished product, it’s a chain of extraction and production intimately tied to geopolitical forces, presented as a monument. Curator: I get a sense of reaching. Perhaps a collective, slightly naive, reaching. It's a testament to ambition, and maybe also to our capacity for self-deception. Editor: And who benefited? Who was exposed to toxic materials? These are not immaterial questions. Curator: No, they are the weight of the dream. Editor: Precisely, the material conditions, not just the aspiration.