Untitled 

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to this "Untitled" drawing. Eric Gill, as the artist, works with watercolor on paper. Immediately, I'm struck by how meticulously the image is rendered; it looks like a garden of potential delights. What stands out to you? Editor: Well, first, a bit unsettling. The symmetry is too perfect. Those two rather aggressive snakes eyeing a butterfly pinned between them, a Y-shaped tree wrapped in checkerboard snakes. Is this Eden gone wrong? It evokes ideas around original sin, maybe through a misogynistic lens. Curator: That’s a potent reading. We need to think of Gill’s devotion to religious themes, and to medieval aesthetics, for a potential cultural perspective. How might those factors inform the piece? The image presents itself almost as an emblem. Editor: Right, so perhaps looking to his religious context gives us keys here. And of course, the checkerboard pattern and even the plants feel almost stylized in execution. Given his broader portfolio of nudes and graphic arts, is he exploring ideas about human desire and nature versus artifice? Curator: Exactly. Consider the placement of the plants to each side, too. Gill may be thinking about ways humans are situated within—or perhaps estranged from—a space. Also consider the way watercolor acts like layered tapestry to consider these ideas in full context of production. Editor: That brings another layer into focus: that the image and form feel staged in conversation with themes related to faith, control, temptation, all with an ever present hint of judgement. Curator: Yes. And by taking his established stylistic themes to make new form, Eric Gill perhaps encourages his audience to consider how social narratives can intersect with visual representations. Editor: Precisely! Now that you mention all of that, I do think it presents a symbolic, intricate tapestry for reflecting upon what our roles truly entail, both then and today. Curator: Yes, and it allows us all to consider not just his art, but also the social structures we wish to question.