By-Products 1916

Curator: Alright, let's talk about "By-Products," an etching created in 1916 by Joseph Pennell. The scene presents an industrial cityscape. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: Grim, but fascinating. The smokestacks, the haze...it feels heavy. You can almost smell the coal. A real peek into the underbelly of progress. It almost vibrates, a frenetic sort of stillness. Curator: That tension is palpable, isn’t it? Pennell was deeply interested in industrial landscapes. The etching method allows for capturing incredible detail, and he emphasizes the sheer scale and the grittiness of the manufacturing world. You've got this network of railways below, which I guess they use for bringing in all of the materials. Editor: Etching... labor-intensive and incredibly physical in itself, almost mirroring the relentless work depicted in the print. I'm thinking about the materials involved: the metal plates, the acid, the paper—transformed by hands to create an image that reflects more hands, at work. All this reminds me that consumption depends so much on materials and physical infrastructure. Curator: Precisely. Pennell is depicting not just buildings and smoke but a complex system of labour. Look at the workers precariously placed in the landscape, a few, thin, dark marks placed far up from our imaginary vantage point! Editor: And what are the 'by-products' here, then? Certainly smoke and the relentless noise of production. The labour extracted too, of course. A question lingers – did the human cost factor into the 'balance sheet' when producing and shipping goods at the time? I’m feeling rather critical of the ethics that produced our commodities. Curator: And beyond. Perhaps "By-Products" speaks to an unintentional creativity spurred on by necessity in working environments that you alluded to, those small deviations from plan enacted on raw material, or simply, even accidentally, transforming the everyday objects for personal reasons? It brings so much to mind, what industry begets. Editor: It’s making me rethink my own relation to the goods that get used and disposed of. Curator: Absolutely! These are just fleeting reflections but powerful when we see the artwork, aren't they?