Boheemse boerenwagen met brandhout 1858

Editor: Here we have "Bohemian farm cart with firewood" rendered in pen and ink by Johannes Tavenraat in 1858. It's a sketch, very loose, and yet I feel the weight of the wood being hauled. What's your take? Curator: That weight, the literal materiality of the wood, is precisely where my eye goes. Consider the labour embodied here: the felling of the trees, the stacking of the wood, the slow trudge of the oxen. These are processes, actions performed by bodies in a specific social context. What does that labor signify to you? Editor: I suppose I hadn’t thought about the labor so much. I was caught up in the simplicity of the drawing itself, how little is needed to convey so much. Curator: But the simplicity *is* deceptive. Think about who has the leisure to make such sketches. While Tavenraat is making art, other people are working, extracting resources. He transforms firewood into art: What kind of labour allows this act of refinement and, by extension, art creation itself? How might the consumption of wood relate to artistic consumption? Editor: So, the firewood becomes less about a picturesque landscape, and more about systems of production and consumption? Curator: Exactly. Tavenraat’s rapid marks don't obscure this for me; they highlight a material transformation, one that depends on hidden, often unequal labor practices, made all the more stark by this quick sketch in ink. Editor: I see what you mean. Thinking about the materials, the ink and wood, and who gets to use them, definitely gives me a richer understanding. Curator: Indeed. Looking at art through its materiality exposes complex social relations and modes of production.