When hearts are trumps 1894

Curator: Isn't this something? The mood that immediately strikes me is languid—a world away from our frantic scrolling and buzzing notifications. Editor: Absolutely. The languor is carefully constructed. This is Will Bradley’s "When hearts are trumps" from 1894, a linocut print steeped in the visual language of Art Nouveau and Symbolism. We're looking at an unapologetic vision of fin-de-siècle eroticism, of course. Curator: I see it in the flowing lines, the stylized grapevines framing the women—but also, more palpably, in the two figures, bathed in this sort of otherworldly light. It almost feels stolen, doesn't it? Like glimpsing a private moment. The slightly psychedelic colors help sell the vibe for me too. Editor: Yes, those blues and that fiery orange—it’s a dreamscape. Bradley's choices of color and the somewhat flattened perspective play against conventional naturalism. And if you look closer at their faces—they're almost identical, aren’t they? That hints at a kind of doubling, or perhaps, mirroring—a breakdown of the singular self. What's more is how the grapes offered can be read as symbols of temptation, of forbidden knowledge. Curator: Temptation—definitely. I get this impression of two sides of a single persona, the duality of desire. It’s not quite sapphic but treads there intriguingly. I'm left contemplating the weight of choices in pursuing what truly moves us. What stories can such close bodies possibly tell? Editor: Precisely, Will Bradley here is playing on societal taboos. The decadent aesthetics serve as a backdrop to question Victorian prudishness. He offers up female relationships in his work as alternatives to the heteronormative gaze. This makes one question the artifice and social conditioning inherent within social constraints around this type of relationship. It's a potent conversation starter, especially when considering it was made over a century ago. Curator: It certainly puts those present-day societal struggles into perspective. Beautiful—thank you for sharing your perspective! Editor: Likewise, I leave our listeners now, hopefully seeing things differently.