Match Against Time, or Wood beats Blood and Bone Possibly 1819

Curator: "Match Against Time, or Wood beats Blood and Bone," an etching dating back to approximately 1819. The work comes to us via Charles Williams, and is rendered with print and paper; its themes circulate around caricature. Editor: There's something comical about it! A horse race versus…a bicycle, right? And what a title, setting it up as Wood versus, well, muscle! There is such a bold, ridiculous air about the work that gets right to the Romantic idea of humor. Curator: The lithographic process here is especially compelling. We can see this piece playing into emerging industrial changes within visual culture. Its appeal rested heavily on the clever visual language that captures this era, especially when read through its printing. Consider the economic factors that made such prints accessible. Editor: Okay, true. But I'm just loving the pure audacity of the artist here. Placing new technology against nature, with a subtle dig at the old aristocracy. It really does feel like someone, maybe the artist himself, laughing. There’s a slight manic gleam! The eyes of the jockey! Curator: I am drawn to considering how this type of printed image affected cultural discourse about labor, and of course leisure. It invites considerations of how print and image consumption affected different social stratifications. Consider too, that the production of the lithograph itself—its material making—implicated labor networks of artists, publishers and distributers. Editor: Sure, but stepping away for a moment: does not that prancing horse look absurd, in that the rider has a manic whip to compel the thing? Even for all the social consideration and process analysis—a thing such as that poor steed in motion brings forth something entirely different. Curator: Indeed, there is an absurd quality. I think exploring this artwork through these discussions of media and production processes give us insight into our ongoing dialogue about artwork materiality, cultural context, and also affective perception. Editor: Ultimately, it seems art really is just a horse, bike and maniac. Now excuse me as I search up whether these bikes were that wild back in the day.