Berekeningen 1862 - 1864

Editor: This is "Berekeningen," or "Calculations," a work in ink on paper by Johannes Tavenraat, created between 1862 and 1864. It’s…just a page filled with numbers and what looks like shopping lists. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a window into the economic and social realities of 19th-century life. Beyond the simple calculations, this page whispers stories of labour, trade, and perhaps even survival. It asks us to consider: whose calculations are these? What power structures are reflected in the transactions listed? Editor: Power structures? It just looks like someone balancing their accounts. Curator: But who gets to do the balancing? Consider the historical context: the burgeoning merchant class, the expansion of colonial trade networks. This simple ledger could reveal the dynamics of wealth distribution, exploitation, and even resistance during that period. Where do the listed names and materials lead us? Editor: That's...wow, I didn’t think about it that way. It's like this mundane list hints at bigger issues. Curator: Exactly! And how might we apply a gendered lens? Who controlled the finances in the household or business? Could these calculations also represent a woman’s unseen labor or a marginalized community navigating a capitalist system? The untidy handwriting and crowded layout, for example, speaks volumes about Tavenraat’s mental state. Editor: So, art isn't just about aesthetics, it's about unveiling these historical layers of the narrative… Curator: Precisely. This "Berekeningen" prompts us to re-evaluate what we consider valuable and whose stories we choose to remember and why. Editor: I’ll never look at a simple drawing the same way again. Thank you.