Scroll 1938

Curator: This is a drawing entitled "Scroll" by Max Fernekes, created in 1938 using watercolor and pencil. Editor: It has an oddly elegant, somber feel. Like a relic carefully rendered. The sepia tones and aged paper amplify that sense of preservation, even reverence. Curator: Interesting take. For me, it prompts questions about industrial design, particularly during the late 1930s. What sort of skilled labor was involved in crafting such detailed ornamental pieces? Was this a proposal, or simply a rendering of an existing artifact? The means of production is very suggestive here. Editor: Absolutely. But that spiraling scroll evokes something deeper for me – a sense of continuous return, perhaps echoing the cyclical nature of time itself. The way the tendrils unfurl, reminiscent of ancient Celtic knotwork. It’s an echo of classical forms filtered through a particular artistic sensibility. Curator: Right, I’m compelled by what the artifact represents about architectural design history of the period. How it might connect to contemporaneous economic challenges as the economy and manufacturing was transforming in this country. The medium employed suggests thoughtful and deliberate work, resisting ideas of mechanized means of production and its efficiency. Editor: Don’t you also think it embodies a search for order, perhaps as a symbolic remedy to external disorder? The ornamental scroll as a defiant, handcrafted emblem against a backdrop of societal upheaval. And also, a sense of identity for those craft workers through this beautiful form. Curator: Identity and labor are intertwined in the physical act of drawing and the tangible result of watercolor on toned paper. Editor: The symbol’s power relies precisely on this physical articulation. Well, this brief investigation has deepened my understanding of the layered potential contained in this artifact. Curator: Indeed, it encourages to further delve into how we assess the value and means of production, as the context for cultural and economic identity.