Bishop Hill: Bridal Box c. 1938

Curator: This is Ethel Clarke’s "Bishop Hill: Bridal Box," around 1938, rendered in watercolor on what seems to be paper. It presents a visual record of a crafted object. I am interested in your reaction to this piece. Editor: The boxes depicted feel quite tactile, almost as if I could reach out and feel the wood grain. What exactly is so special about how the piece makes you feel? Curator: Well, the work documents a bridal box. But really, I am curious about Clarke's labor in replicating this artifact, her choice to use watercolor to meticulously document an object crafted from perhaps coarser materials. Editor: You mean like, the original box has significance because of the hands that actually built it? But Clarke’s watercolor is somehow, once-removed from that labor? Curator: Exactly! Consider how the drawing transforms the object, almost elevating the status of "craft" to that of "fine art," even while preserving the evidence of the hands-on work of ceramic and woodworking that constitute the original bridal box. Does it make you consider the historical context? Editor: Definitely! Thinking about how bridal boxes were constructed and used makes me think of rituals of marriage in Bishop Hill and who may have made that actual bridal box in 1762. Clarke’s medium abstracts and romanticizes those activities while preserving them. Curator: And what of Clarke's status? Does it impact her means of illustrating the box? Editor: This piece gives a fresh perspective, it questions notions of labour and also material. The artist has done well to showcase its context. Thanks for highlighting it. Curator: And thank you for providing your thoughtful reflections on it, let’s move on.