Dancing Girl Making Paper Birds 19th-20th century

Curator: We are looking at "Dancing Girl Making Paper Birds," an anonymous 19th to 20th-century photograph, currently held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Editor: There's a quiet intimacy to it, almost melancholy. The stark white bird pops against the muted tones, drawing the eye immediately. Curator: Absolutely. It is interesting to think about the production. These photographs, hand-colored albumen prints on paper, became a popular commodity. The making of these "souvenir" photos became a local industry for a time, supporting entire communities of artists and laborers. Editor: The photographer expertly frames the subject. Consider the texture, the interplay of lines between the origami bird, the soft folds of the kimono. Her dark hair provides an anchor to emphasize her youth. Curator: This photographic style also challenges boundaries. The sitters came from the lower classes of Meiji Japan. So you might want to ask whether there’s a dissonance here; is this image more staged and a false record, or documentation of real women and labor of this time? Editor: I'd say the contrast between the apparent simplicity of the photograph and the depth of cultural narratives at play is interesting. The single paper crane seems to symbolize larger societal values regarding performance, domesticity, even transformation and hope. Curator: Right. Paper, of course, being one of the core and oldest technologies in Japanese art production. It’s hard to deny the link here to long history of consumption and globalized circulation of materials that made photographs and art available to western consumers. Editor: Whether we foreground form or historical context, it's hard to resist reading more into this deceptively simple photograph. Curator: Agreed. These commercial portraits invite the viewer to consider cultural encounters between Japan and the West, a complex process involving the commodification of artistic traditions.