Sugar Cutter c. 1939

Curator: What a stark, solitary drawing. I feel the weight of it despite its simple presentation. Editor: Well, I’m always struck by how even the most mundane objects can carry so much history and unspoken narrative, and this definitely seems true here. The work, titled "Sugar Cutter", comes to us from Edward L. Loper around 1939. Curator: “Sugar Cutter…” such an unassuming name. Sugar, once a luxury, a commodity fought over… This tool embodies that history of consumption, doesn’t it? All the sweetness extracted through force. The prongs reaching out remind me of grasping claws, almost sinister. Editor: Yes, it's curious. Loper’s commitment to Realism highlights an everyday tool used to measure sweetness and make an argument to show that the cutter’s appearance is far removed from those saccharine experiences. Curator: Indeed. We often overlook the implements of our lives, these silent witnesses. It's also how drawing can reveal that which is unnoticed or discarded, a relic. Loper saw value in portraying that memory. Editor: Perhaps he wanted to immortalize it and examine those material histories. By rendering its form with such fidelity, down to the corrosion marks and signs of wear. Curator: Rust becomes a visual language here. I keep thinking about that grip though, almost like praying hands, grasping or ready to crush what’s held between them. Editor: This invites us to reflect on forgotten economies, perhaps those uncomfortable systems which once gave us access to daily provisions. An unpretentious piece of industrial design rendered into a ghostlike echo. It certainly stays with you, this quiet witness. Curator: It does indeed. Food has always been at the centre of human culture, often with a tool as its vehicle and that continues today, for better and worse.