The Great Exhibition "Wot is to Be", Probable Results of The Industry of All Nations in The Year '51, Showing What is to be Exhibited, Who is To Exhibit, in Short How Its All Going to Be Done 1850

Editor: We’re looking at George Augustus Sala’s engraving from 1850, titled "The Great Exhibition 'Wot is to Be'". It’s quite intricate. There is something fantastical and yet oddly cynical about its depiction of the future. What do you see in this piece, considering its formal elements? Curator: Structurally, the piece is built around a clear visual hierarchy. The immense airship-like structure dominates the composition, drawing the eye upwards. Below it, Sala uses contrasting textures – the solid ground versus the delicate tracery of the Crystal Palace depicted both as a smaller dome below and hinted at within the "airship." The rigid symmetry also contributes, doesn't it strike you as stage-like? Editor: Yes, the symmetry is definitely striking! And those chopped trees in the foreground… almost like relics of a past being left behind. What’s the significance of that contrast, or the medium itself? Curator: The choice of engraving is deliberate, given its capacity for detailed lines and sharp contrasts. Sala exploits this to create a world of both impressive innovation, embodied by these geometric shapes floating above the city. The Romantic art of the period, which valorized feelings, had a preoccupation with ruins as memento mori or the relics of time - what does it do for the message? Editor: I hadn’t considered it from that perspective. The print's precise lines convey that supposed clarity, yet it hints at underlying instability… that maybe progress has its price. Thanks! Curator: Precisely. And the contrast highlights the tensions between ambition and apprehension inherent in a period of such rapid change. Looking at it through that lens helps to decode the complexity of its message.