Little Height Machine 1920

This is an etching by Johannes Molzahn, and I can just imagine him working into that metal plate with burin and acid, coaxing out these strange mechanical forms. The criss-crossing lines create depth and shadow. It's as if he's trying to capture the dynamism of the machine age in a static image. I can almost feel the vibrations and hear the whirring of gears. He layers geometric shapes and textures to create a sense of movement and energy, like the Futurists did. But there's something more personal here, a kind of quirky humor in his vision of industrial progress. I wonder if Molzahn was thinking about the way machines were changing society, for better or worse. Maybe he saw the potential for both creation and destruction in these new technologies. It’s amazing how just by looking at the marks, you can start to conjure what he might have been thinking, and maybe start thinking yourself.