Blue-Green Corset Flask c. 1941

Curator: This artwork is titled "Blue-Green Corset Flask," created circa 1941 by Beverly Chichester. It appears to be rendered in pencil and watercolor on toned paper. Editor: My initial reaction is how delicately this is drawn. It gives the impression of almost ethereal fragility, a corset designed for… a sea nymph, maybe? The color palette feels very restrained and aquatic. Curator: I find it interesting that a "corset" informs the flask's form. Corsets, of course, have a complex and often problematic history, embodying constraints imposed upon women's bodies, reinforcing narrow beauty standards. Did Chichester mean for the reference to imply that decorative objects may function to perpetuate hegemonic norms, just like garments do? Editor: Or perhaps she saw beauty in the way glass is shaped, manipulated under heat into forms that mimic other objects. Think about the artisanal skill that's required to take molten glass and transform it to recall something as tailored and rigid as a corset. It highlights the tension between the liquid, fluid nature of glass and the implied constraint. Curator: Yes, but constraint here seems linked to gender, doesn’t it? I keep thinking of the restrictions placed on women to appear a certain way. The flask is an object of display, so perhaps Chichester critiques a woman’s own forced "display," carefully corseted into prescribed roles. What does it *contain*, after all? Something precious? A message? Editor: We can only speculate. But from a purely material perspective, the skill involved suggests that making and even consuming luxury goods provides economic possibilities for those in the margins, creating opportunities where otherwise denied. This object, and others of its kind, has opened routes for financial and social mobility through craft, as it continues to do today. Curator: Perhaps. For me, however, the emphasis is not on pure material pleasure, but rather on asking uncomfortable questions. "Blue-Green Corset Flask" reflects a moment where consumer culture collided with prevailing notions of feminine containment. It reveals the tension between art as mere decoration and art as subversive critique. Editor: Ultimately, the object reflects both our social constructs and our tactile engagement with a designed environment; seeing it from all possible perspectives opens a broader discourse.