Selva (Woods) 1870

Curator: Here we have Walter Teodoro Bosio’s “Selva,” made in 1870. It's an etching, offering a detailed glimpse into a wooded landscape. What catches your eye? Editor: The sheer density of it! It's almost claustrophobic, this tangle of trees and undergrowth, executed entirely through intricate, repetitive lines. You can practically feel the humidity and the decay on the forest floor. Curator: I see the layers. Etchings lend themselves to building up scenes carefully, symbolically, I’d even say. It suggests the unconscious, the part of the soul hidden, dense. Forests, throughout art history, stand in for all sorts of hidden feelings. What is secreted? Editor: Well, given that it’s an etching, you're dealing with acid, with a biting process that literally eats away at the plate to create these images. This, to me, suggests violence – a very controlled violence, granted. There’s labor and toxicity inherent to this method, connecting it with material extraction. Look at the way the light is constructed. How precise. It must’ve taken a great amount of calculated planning and the right mordant recipe to yield these shades and depth. Curator: An interesting reading! Certainly, you feel the labor. It strikes me, too, how universal these images can be, how readily interpretable they become, but that the cultural meaning would have changed depending on who the audience would have been, which is relevant when you think of how landscape as a style became about ownership. What did it mean for Bosio to picture a forest and how do those meanings change? Editor: I completely agree. And while forests are timeless, how different materials circulate always reveal stories of trade, of access, of who profits. Paper, metal, acid - all very specific actors in this narrative. It compels me to reconsider where the labor and the environment intersects during this moment, to consider its long reach. Curator: A reminder that every image exists materially. Editor: Exactly, and that "Selva," seemingly simple, actually hides a complex story in its making.