Tree Trunk 1885

Curator: "Tree Trunk" by Frederick Arthur Bridgman, circa 1885. Editor: What a tangle of woody limbs and warm light. It feels both inviting and slightly claustrophobic, like a dream of walking through an ancient grove. Curator: Bridgman's landscape works offer interesting insight when we consider colonial contexts and the orientalist gaze, wouldn’t you agree? How might these landscapes have reinforced Western ideas about the East? Editor: Sure, I see that, but immediately I’m getting such a tactile sense of rough bark and sun-baked earth, an earthy Mediterranean palette… feels like pure sensation almost more than any particular politics to me initially. Though I guess sensations can be pretty political, right? Curator: Absolutely. By focusing on the sensory experience, Bridgman perhaps inadvertently glosses over complex socio-political realities. Whose land is this? Whose labor shaped it? Who profits from its image? It calls into question art’s role in potentially normalizing or obscuring unequal power dynamics and histories of dispossession. Editor: Wow, heavy. For me, there’s this overwhelming sense of endurance, the slow, silent witness of these ancient trees, a kind of non-human perspective… like they have stories to tell that we can only guess at. The painting style does evoke this almost tangible link to history. It also makes me want to write some prose poems. Curator: We could reflect on what is NOT being shown here. What are the social, political and human impacts on these landscapes that he neglects to highlight? Editor: Well, Frederick Arthur Bridgman definitely gave us food for thought… on so many levels. Curator: It makes one reflect, definitely, on how a seemingly innocent nature scene has profound layers waiting to be unraveled.