Sketch made on Indian Reservation c. 19th century

Editor: Here we have Walter Shirlaw’s “Sketch made on Indian Reservation,” likely created sometime in the 19th century. It’s a pencil and graphite drawing, quite small, and it feels… documentary, like a quick record of a scene. What catches your eye when you look at this work? Curator: The immediacy of the graphite sketch certainly speaks to a desire for documentation, but I'm drawn to the means of its production. Consider the paper itself, its sourcing, the lead in the pencils, and the economic systems that made those materials accessible. How do these factors shape our understanding of the depicted scene and the artist's role within it? Editor: That's interesting. I was focusing on the image, but you're directing me towards the physical act of its creation. So, the relative accessibility of paper and pencils at that time for someone like Shirlaw? Curator: Precisely. Whose story gets told, and through what materials? A sketch like this exists because certain individuals and institutions had access to resources denied to others. How does that power dynamic affect the representation of Indigenous life? Editor: So it’s not just a neutral landscape. The availability of these materials highlights the power imbalance inherent in that encounter between Shirlaw and the people he's sketching. It reframes the work for me entirely. Curator: Exactly. And what kind of labour enabled the extraction and fabrication of these artistic materials in the first place? Were they free or enslaved, paid or coerced? That all goes into the artwork. Editor: I hadn't thought about the material production in that way. I was stuck on the image itself! Thank you. Curator: The art world’s fascination with "fine art" can be a distraction sometimes. Examining the physical and social infrastructure of art-making reveals so much more.