Enjoying A Moment of Rest 2015

Editor: So this is Mark Maggiori's "Enjoying A Moment of Rest" from 2015, an oil painting depicting two cowboys on horseback in what looks like Monument Valley. The detail is impressive, especially on the clouds, but it feels almost like a staged photograph. What strikes you about it? Curator: Considering this oil painting through a materialist lens, the very landscape depicted—its extraction, the labor involved in the cowboys' activities—speaks volumes. We should acknowledge the physical processes inherent in the creation of this representation. Look at the pigments derived from the earth, transformed through industrial processes into the oil paint that constitutes the image. Editor: I see your point about the materials, but I'm not sure I follow about labor. It looks like leisure for the cowboys? Curator: Is it, though? Consider the socio-economic conditions, the manual work implied by their trade. How does the material reality of cowboy life, often romanticized, clash with the commodified image presented here? The clothing, the tack, all objects of consumption in themselves... Editor: Ah, I didn't think about their outfits that way. It does feel… staged, maybe even manufactured in some ways, which you're saying connects back to the means of production behind every part of the scene. So, what's your final thought about that clash? Curator: Ultimately, Maggiori compels us to examine how our idealized vision of the 'wild west' veils a history rooted in exploitation of natural resources, manual labour, and consumerism, even within a picture of seemingly picturesque leisure. Editor: That's a great point, it makes me think more critically about the stories told and not told by such scenes.