All That Jazz – Blackboard 

Editor: This is Greg Hildebrandt's "All That Jazz – Blackboard," a drawing, seemingly with pen, depicting a woman in a bar setting. There's a kind of sultry, old Hollywood glamour vibe to it, but something also feels a little… performative about the scene. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It’s interesting you pick up on that performative aspect. I see it as a deliberate construction of femininity, echoing a historical fetishization but also possibly critiquing it. Think about the hyper-sexualized image juxtaposed with the traditional space of the bar, often coded as masculine. What power dynamics are at play here? Is she reclaiming that space or simply reinforcing stereotypes? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn’t considered. So, beyond the surface-level reading of a pin-up style image, there could be a commentary on the historical objectification of women in entertainment? Curator: Exactly. The "Blackboard" in the title might be significant too. What's written or unwritten on this blackboard, both literally and figuratively? What kind of message do you think this image might carry to contemporary audiences accustomed to the commodification of female sexuality? Editor: It’s interesting how the setting itself is both classic and… a bit stale? It feels like a stage. Is it implying that femininity itself is a stage, and all women are players? Curator: I think that reading aligns well with a feminist lens. We should ask whose gaze this performance is for, and what that gaze expects to see. Think about art from that era—this invites us to interrogate those earlier representations of women. Editor: That adds so much more depth than I initially perceived. Now I see how the work isn't just a depiction, but a complex statement about the presentation of women, past and present. Curator: Precisely! Art, after all, often functions as a mirror, reflecting not only what we see, but also how we've been trained to see it.