Night Cap 1935 - 1942

Curator: Standing here, I’m drawn to the ethereal lightness of this pencil drawing. It feels almost like a whispered memory. Editor: It's “Night Cap” by Percival Jenner, made between 1935 and 1942. A very specific type of garment immortalized simply using pencil on paper. It evokes such domestic intimacy but I wonder, intimacy for whom? Curator: Intimacy, that’s it! Like uncovering an old photo. I imagine it feels very personal for Jenner, capturing such intricate details of, what appears to be, hand-sewn trim. A simple, loving record of something precious, even ephemeral. Editor: Right, but "ephemeral" is deceptive. Nightcaps, like other forms of domestic textiles, index labor—particularly that of women. The seemingly delicate lines belie the socio-economic realities ingrained within that handmade lace. How does its careful rendering flatten this tension? Curator: I can also see it as celebrating the dedication and skill inherent in the making. To lovingly draw something so detailed requires, I would argue, a similar form of attention as was poured into the stitching itself. It’s art mirroring craft, don’t you think? Editor: I do. And the very muted color palette only heightens that sense of something half-recalled, hinting perhaps at nostalgia but also, simultaneously, the very tangible constraints of gendered labor in that era. Its a very deliberate rendering, very deliberate index of a specific temporality. Curator: Absolutely, the limitations become a part of the poetry. But to zoom back a bit… doesn’t the meticulousness with which Jenner captures every tiny detail amplify its beauty in some way? Transform it? Editor: To transform labor into an art object does not erase the history embedded in that object but makes it even more complex. Something so private, so bound to domestic space is here elevated to public attention… Curator: Yes, elevated! It's lovely to ponder what these very lines hide or reveal. Thanks. Editor: Likewise. What do these shadows protect, and who is allowed to see it? These are questions I can’t seem to leave behind.