Gezicht op transportkarren onderweg naar Kroonstad, Zuid-Afrika 1901

This is a stereo card of transport carts en route to Kroonstad, South Africa, a mass produced item made by an anonymous publisher, likely sometime around the turn of the century. Looking at it, you can tell that it's a process, the way it was made, using real life but also constructing an image for mass consumption. The sepia tone really flattens the landscape into a kind of ochre, and the slight blur of the image makes it seem distant, like a half-remembered dream. The composition is all about the carts, of course, but there's this whole field in the background, flattening out into the horizon. The dust and scrub is broken only by the dark circles of the cart wheels, which adds to the mood. That repetition in the wheels, echoed by the twin image makes me think of Warhol, and his obsession with repetition, but also with mechanical reproduction and the blurring between art and commerce. I love how something that seems so simple can open up so many pathways. The art is never really finished, but the viewer, you, bring your own experience, your own reading, and keep the conversation going.