Drawer Pull c. 1936

Curator: This drawing by Janet Riza, titled "Drawer Pull," dates to around 1936. Crafted in pencil, it presents a detailed rendering of a drawer pull design. It strikes me immediately as ornate but also, in a way, a little sad or quiet. Editor: I feel that. It evokes the Arts and Crafts movement with its emphasis on handmade quality and the beauty of functional objects. It is a period that romanticized the artisan, didn't it? A kind of visual pushback against industrialization's flattening effect? Curator: Precisely. Notice the geometric patterning—those interlocking shapes. Geometric symbols have long histories. There's an intentionality, almost a silent language in their use, pointing to deeper meanings around domestic life. Does this intimate scale also suggest a counter narrative? The detail versus a generalized concept of design? Editor: Absolutely. By focusing so intensely on the details of a single drawer pull, Riza elevates it to a status beyond its utilitarian purpose. But I wonder, what are we to make of domesticity now? The work can seem very sentimental and somewhat removed from our time. Curator: Perhaps, or we could interpret this intimate attention as subversive in its way. The everyday object celebrated and interrogated, inviting reflection on its silent contribution to the bigger structure. Editor: Yes, and if we understand ornamentation not merely as decoration, but as a symbol of something larger, then that keyhole, those lines—they're speaking to power dynamics in the domestic space. Who gets to access what? What's hidden, what's revealed? Curator: Exactly! Riza may have embedded ideas and values that were culturally loaded. What does craft itself symbolize at the point in history? Is it luxury? Is it resistance? Is it control? Editor: Ultimately, Riza prompts us to consider not only the aesthetic value of this simple object but also the socio-cultural framework it inhabits. A subtle provocation, rendered with the gentle touch of pencil. Curator: And in that quiet rendering, Riza perhaps gives the last word, whispering a different truth, still echoing.