[title not known] Verso: ?Tone Exercise: Cylindrical Shape 

Editor: This small etching, "Tone Exercise: Cylindrical Shape" by an unknown British School artist, gives off a distinct feeling of power. All that architecture perched atop the natural rock formation… What can you tell me about it? Curator: It certainly evokes power, doesn't it? Consider the historical context. Picturesque landscapes like this often served to naturalize and legitimize the power structures already in place. Who do you think benefits from portraying the built environment as naturally dominant? Editor: I guess the people who own that building...or commissioned this artwork. It makes me wonder about the labor involved in making something like this. Curator: Precisely. What does it mean to render a constructed space as somehow emerging organically from the earth? It obscures the labor and the socio-political forces at play, doesn't it? Editor: I never thought about landscape art that way. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure! Always question the narratives these images present.