Resist Print c. 1937

Curator: Looking at "Resist Print" from circa 1937 by Michael Trekur, made with drawing, print, textile, paper, and watercolour, one's first impression is definitely… botanical. It appears like a fragment, perhaps a design sample for a larger textile project. Editor: Immediately I'm drawn to the subtle variation in blue. The shades shift across each flower, from the edges inward. Notice also the delicate stippling within the blossoms. It has a dream-like quality, despite being such a graphic, patterned design. Curator: This use of the resist technique itself is compelling, evoking a time of ingenuity in the decorative arts. Resist printing often carried connotations of homecraft. The very imperfection of the resist creates a visual echo, hinting at tradition and resilience. Editor: True, and yet the deliberate patterning strikes me as more than just domestic. Look at how the stems carve through space; the forms become almost abstracted, almost flattened. Curator: They seem almost as mnemonic devices, little memory aids woven into everyday life, speaking to continuity and an attachment to the natural world, even as industrialization intensified. It's as if these flowers offer a sense of rootedness and resistance. Editor: Precisely! And perhaps in the context of 1937, those abstracted shapes speak to a burgeoning modernism infiltrating even the most traditional of crafts. There is a lovely tension here between nature and form. Curator: Indeed, the piece really speaks to the ability of art to both reflect and shape cultural memory. To be used, and yet also communicate a depth of feeling. Editor: Agreed. "Resist Print" allows us a glimpse into an era negotiating past and future in something as simple, yet profoundly eloquent, as the design on fabric.