Squaw Valley near Now-ow-wa 

Curator: As we move into this gallery, we encounter Thomas Hill's "Squaw Valley near Now-ow-wa," rendered with oil paint. I’m immediately struck by its rather complex arrangement—a foreground of craggy rocks that suddenly opens up to this distant valley. How does it sit with you? Editor: What hits me first is this strange juxtaposition: that luminous, almost ethereal valley receding into the distance and then, plopped right here, these bears with such incredible physical presence, especially with how somber their expressions look. Curator: I think that the play of light is also very telling. If we see, he carefully crafts this dichotomy; light against dark, distant view against close-up intimacy, creating a captivating pictorial space and tension, what do you reckon? Editor: It certainly plays on grand scale, this feeling of frontier boundlessness offset against a really intimate and specific narrative, right? There are figures in the distant plains too, native indigenous peoples observing. Do you think this might be making a comment about encroaching landscapes and their human/animal observers, who appear in different layers of focus and intensity across this huge scenery? Curator: Quite possibly, and it is important to recall that Hill, associated with the Hudson River School, had a keen interest in painting sublime landscapes, to provoke a profound emotional reaction. Editor: A sense of the overwhelming sublime yes, also the sadness… the quiet dread in this mother bear's eyes. Do you feel that there might be an impending anxiety of being observed on their ancestral territories as everything changes with such accelerated force, by either people or painting of people, in this valley near Now-ow-wa. A subtle reminder perhaps, of nature’s vulnerable existence within our increasingly industrialised, image-saturated era? Curator: It is almost prophetic. We could delve even deeper into this image, but I suggest our listeners contemplate these perspectives further and consider how these artistic decisions evoke complex emotional responses. Editor: Yes, how our emotional relationship to a place shapes both our perceptions and our projections, what the valley and it's inhabitants are to be memorialized as forever.