Transport by Sea: Transporting Troops 1917

Editor: This is Charles Pears' "Transport by Sea: Transporting Troops," a black and white print housed at the Tate. It depicts a large ship at sea. What strikes me is how the rough etching style seems to convey the labor involved. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a focus on the materiality of war and the mechanisms of its execution. Consider the ship itself – an object constructed through immense industrial labor, now repurposed for the transportation of troops, another form of labor. How does the printmaking process itself, with its reproducible nature, speak to the mass mobilization of war? Editor: So, the printmaking technique mirrors the mass production and mobilization that war demands? Curator: Precisely. And think about the consumption of resources, both human and material, inherent in this scene. What’s left behind when the ship departs? Editor: This definitely gives me a new perspective on the art and the war. Curator: It's about examining the process and the means of production that enabled this moment.