Arch I 1971

Editor: Here we have Ivor Abrahams' "Arch I". It's a print, undated, and the texture looks almost like crumbling stone. How do you see this piece, focusing on its materiality? Curator: The rough texture, the seeming erosion, suggests a critique of permanence. Abrahams uses printmaking, traditionally a medium for mass production, to depict a seemingly natural, yet artificial form. How does this tension between natural and artificial speak to ideas of labor and production in the landscape? Editor: So, it's less about the arch itself and more about the artist's choices in representing it? Curator: Precisely! The *means* of production – the printmaking process – is integral to understanding the work's commentary on our relationship with the environment and our manipulation of it. Something to keep in mind! Editor: That’s a great perspective. I never would have thought about it that way.