Ute Earring 1891

Curator: Frederic Remington completed this pen-ink sketch titled "Ute Earring" in 1891. The piece is remarkably simple, just an isolated image centered on the page. My first impression is of deliberate, careful craftsmanship. Editor: There's a delicate elegance, despite being just a utilitarian object depicted through such limited means. The use of line suggests light catching the earring's surfaces. Curator: Right, Remington had been working as an illustrator and reporter, often depicting life in the American West. There’s ethnographic interest here – a desire to document cultural artifacts. It appears almost scientific, divorced from a specific cultural setting. Editor: Absolutely. I think focusing on the object removes the maker’s context but I’m curious, what materials were actually used for this piece of jewelry? Was it actually made by Ute artisans for practical wear, or for sale and trade to settlers? Curator: Good question. We know there was significant pressure from the US government during this time. Depictions such as these could, even unconsciously, represent attempts to assert a sense of control. Even admiration can be a form of appropriation if the balance of power is unequal. Editor: Exactly! Consider the labor. The way Remington employs pen and ink mirrors in some way the slow processes of jewelry-making: the weaving of thread, polishing the shell... these physical efforts, embedded within this object's existence, are echoed through Remington's technique. Curator: The rendering creates a sense of detail that almost feels like one could reconstruct it! Even a sense of scale through that line work... you understand its approximate weight and size in the hand. Editor: I do love the contrast between that heavy circle up top, perhaps for suspending on an ear or hanging on a display, versus the dangling elements below, free-floating, a study in material tensions and release. It invites touching! Curator: For me, I see a captured moment of contact between cultures, filtered through Remington's gaze, now viewed through our own lens. It is difficult to really appreciate through historical filters but there is such depth there, hidden under such a basic illustration! Editor: Indeed, by focusing on the materials and process of creation, we've revealed just a bit more, both of this little sketch, and possibly ourselves as well.