Rose Toner (Rhodamine) 

Editor: This is “Rose Toner (Rhodamine)” by H. Kohnstamm & Co. It looks like a jar of pigment next to a color chart. It's so interesting that the Harvard Art Museums are displaying what looks like a raw material. What do you make of that? Curator: Well, this isn't just a jar, is it? It's a manufactured product, meant for a specific industrial application. This brings the means of artistic production itself into question. What do you think the presentation alongside the color chart suggests about artistic labor? Editor: Maybe it’s about showing us the precise, manufactured nature of color and how it's controlled? Curator: Precisely. By showcasing this seemingly mundane object, the artist implicates the entire system of material production within the definition of "art." Editor: That makes me think differently about where art begins! Curator: Indeed, it blurs the lines between industry, materiality, and artistic intention.