Sugar Bowl 1885

Editor: Here we have the "Sugar Bowl," crafted in 1885 by the Union Porcelain Works. It’s earthenware with delicate painted details. There’s something so prim and proper about it, yet also cold...What do you see when you look at it? Curator: It's fascinating how everyday objects like this sugar bowl can be such potent carriers of history. Consider the opulence of the Gilded Age in the United States during the 1880s when this bowl was created, think of what kind of forced labor that opulence was built upon. Editor: Right! Curator: The sugar it held, cultivated on plantations that were intrinsically tied to slavery and exploitation... Do you notice the carefully woven pattern on the bowl? Doesn't that mimic the baskets used to harvest cane, further embedding that violent history in the aesthetic? Editor: I hadn't thought of the basket weave pattern like that, but it makes sense! Almost as if the object performs some sort of twisted 'homage'. So the object, meant for sweetness, conceals a bitter past... Curator: Exactly! The beauty of this object, for whom was that beauty intended, and at what cost? These decorative arts aren't just pretty things. They are artifacts which serve as testaments to how economic and racial oppression seep into our daily lives. Who benefited, and who suffered, from its existence? Editor: I see it now, I think this shifts my understanding. It is not enough to appreciate craft, we have to scrutinize every symbol of material culture. Thank you, it makes me want to re-evaluate how things are valued today! Curator: Absolutely, examining art means examining power. Glad to spark new considerations!