Press 1938

Curator: This is "Press," a 1938 drawing by Michael Fallon. It seems to be rendered in colored pencil and watercolor. What’s your immediate impression? Editor: It’s… homely, isn’t it? In a good way. Utilitarian. Gives me a flash of a very specific, old-fashioned workshop. Quiet labor. What kind of press is it? For printing? Cheese? Curator: Well, that’s interesting you ask. This tool depicts a butter press, it would have been used on farms in the artist’s region to press the extra whey from the butter solids, improving quality, firmness, and shelf life. Fallon seems to zero in on its fundamental geometry but I think its symbolic import extends beyond butter itself. Editor: Symbolism, hmm. I definitely feel a deep connection to history seeing it here, yes—but as I stare, it gives me the sense that all our efforts will ultimately crumble and fade away just like the weathering you see on the old wood. Curator: Yes! I see the transience too. These handmade objects really remind us how much labor once went into simple daily tasks. It’s a sharp contrast to our current dependence on automation. Editor: I'm intrigued by Fallon's choice of materials. Watercolor lends such a delicate quality to an object designed for force and pressure. The academic realism almost heightens its strange intimacy, no? We are drawn to its textures, not only its use. Curator: Precisely! It highlights a lost intimacy between humans and our things. Fallon draws attention to that by immortalizing such a mundane, worn tool. It asks the viewer to really consider our relationship to material culture and the cycles of obsolescence, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Absolutely. It is both strangely compelling and… melancholy. So what can we know about this Fallon, who made butter presses such serious subject matter for drawing? Curator: Well, that I think will have to wait for another discussion, perhaps one regarding the role that the Farm Security Administration played in American culture. Editor: Indeed. Now that's something to chew on. Or, perhaps press!