Sandhogs 1939

Curator: Here we have Charles Keller's "Sandhogs," created in 1939. The medium appears to be charcoal, skillfully applied in a print format. What's your immediate impression? Editor: Claustrophobia. Utter claustrophobia. It's all tight angles and compressed space, those figures feel like they're fighting for every breath, and, what’s that, are they merging with the earth? Curator: "Sandhogs" is a historical term for the workers who built tunnels, often underwater. Keller is focusing on labor and the body in extreme working conditions, how that body is stressed, changed, subsumed almost by the worksite. You feel that, right? Editor: Absolutely, and there’s something mythological, even infernal, about this place. Are they building something or being consumed by something? That spiraling form at the end feels like some kind of monstrous birth canal. Curator: It's the process of creation and destruction simultaneously. Look at the textures; they’re rough and raw. You can almost feel the grit of the earth and the dampness of the tunnel pressing in on these men. There's an immediacy in the making, in the mark-making itself, that reflects the demanding nature of their labor. Editor: Keller clearly understood the psychological weight of this work. It's not just a document; it's a gut punch. I keep thinking about the absence of sky, air—their whole world narrowed to this suffocating tunnel. It’s heavy with shadow and uncertainty, even danger, which feels incredibly relevant. Curator: The print format is significant here. It allowed for wider distribution, meaning more people could reflect on these kinds of laborers and conditions. It asks who performs this labor and at what price, for what end. Editor: Yes. It’s interesting too, this very dark space that manages also to bring to light those lives often obscured, almost willingly, from view. It lingers long after you’ve seen it. Curator: Exactly, a confluence of medium and message combining for powerful effect. Editor: This journey underground has certainly given me something to think about.