Black Dawn 2017

Editor: Here we have Beeple's "Black Dawn" from 2017, which appears to be a digital rendering. The looming dark sphere in contrast with the idyllic landscape is unsettling. What's your take on this piece? Curator: Well, let's start with the process. This is digital art. So we're immediately confronted with a shift in artistic labor. What does it mean to "make" something in this medium? It disrupts traditional notions of artistic skill associated with painting or sculpture, instead emphasizing the artist's mastery of software. How does this impact the value we place on art? Editor: That’s interesting, the materials are code and algorithms. It really shifts how you think about labor in art production. Curator: Exactly! And consider the "landscape" itself. Is it real, or fabricated? This speaks to our increasingly mediated relationship with nature and questions the consumption of idealized landscapes. This idyllic scenery is then juxtaposed with this massive, looming void which suggests a catastrophic event and creates this contrast to emphasize what’s at risk. Editor: I see that the means of production can dictate the meaning! Curator: Precisely! And how the artwork challenges our perception of materiality by making immaterial labor and consumption more present. Consider this in light of debates around NFTs, the digital art market, and environmental costs, how Beeple consumes the power it takes to render art. What does this make you consider now about its interpretation? Editor: Thinking about production helps me to think of a range of cultural meanings of this art beyond my first glance at its pictorial mood. Curator: Agreed, and perhaps by thinking about the modes of its making we can really begin to decode a wider message from this piece of digital art.