Shutter Hinge and Fastener c. 1936

Curator: Allow me to introduce James M. Lawson's "Shutter Hinge and Fastener," created around 1936. It is a drawing done in pencil on metal. Editor: Stark and cold. It feels very industrial, impersonal almost. Curator: Note how the lines emphasize the clean geometric forms. The artist meticulously renders the shape and the spatial relationship. The details of the metal’s texture and the stark arrangement of the elements contribute to the work's visual tension. Editor: The composition highlights function. Think of the labor embedded in these humble objects. Metalwork and fabrication like this are intensive processes—the ore extraction, smelting, forging, finishing...the unseen work to arrive to the final stage of the finished design. It reveals how art emerges out of industry, in an applied way, during its time period. Curator: Semiotically, the hinge represents connection, both physically in its mechanism and metaphorically in terms of unity and the bridging of spaces. Editor: I would propose further questioning the notion of unity. These separate pieces can just as easily point to division and compartmentalization within early American industry— the specific work, production process, and then eventual consumer good for individual consumers. How could the conditions of labor also imply division in communities? Curator: Perhaps a lens for considering the formal values of design in the quotidian, elevating everyday forms. Lawson uses realist techniques. But these technical drawings invite a closer formal interpretation of realism itself— the pure lines of the draft, the careful execution of shape, to convey utility but with visual purpose. Editor: I agree. Lawson pushes us to consider this question—what objects warrant closer inspection. It's been interesting to uncover the unseen physical costs for functional, and utilitarian creations such as these fasteners. Curator: Yes, and equally stimulating to appreciate Lawson's sophisticated construction, highlighting how objects convey deeper meanings.