Desert Saw 

Editor: So this is Ivan Chermayeff’s "Desert Saw", a drawing with quite a bold and striking design. It’s…intense, almost confrontational, with those sharp, geometric shapes and the unexpected color palette. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It strikes me as a kind of primal face, perhaps a totem. The shapes coalesce into features--eyes, teeth. Consider the title "Desert Saw." A saw is a tool of harsh division. Could this be a guardian, a deity, carving up the stark desert landscape, both physically and metaphorically? Editor: That's interesting, I was caught up in the pop-art aspect, and how flat the colours are! I hadn't thought of a desert deity at all. Curator: These stark contrasts can trigger a cultural memory. What traditions, or stories, might a harsh, judgmental eye connect to, for you? Are these benevolent or cautionary figures that come to mind? Editor: I think cautionary. There’s almost a monstrous quality about the geometric arrangement. It’s intriguing that abstraction can evoke such powerful feelings. Curator: Precisely! Even without direct representation, certain arrangements resonate. Perhaps it's the unsettling effect of these colours together? Remember, visual languages build emotional worlds, and in this case, that world feels primal and vigilant. It almost dares you to engage. Editor: This has given me a whole new way to appreciate "Desert Saw". I was seeing surface, now I see layers of meaning, built by those stark images. Curator: And sometimes, the most rewarding art demands that deeper engagement. It leaves us pondering what lurks beneath the surface, what cultural echoes inform our perception.