Dieren en planten 1806 - 1830

Curator: Here we have "Dieren en planten," or "Animals and Plants," an engraving by Johan Noman, created sometime between 1806 and 1830. What are your first thoughts? Editor: The organization immediately strikes me – almost a catalog. But a catalog of what? These stark depictions on paper give off an air of scientific curiosity tinged with a strange formality. Curator: Indeed. Note the way Noman uses the engraving technique. Each creature, from the Siberian Shepherd to the orangutan, is rendered with a uniform level of detail. The lines create volume and texture, attempting to capture their forms precisely. Editor: I’m more drawn to what's absent. Where is the earth that sustains these creatures? The animals and plants appear strangely isolated, extracted, floating in a vacuum. It speaks to a very specific mode of understanding and classifying the natural world, one that values the specimen over the ecosystem. What of the labor required to print these images? The artist and the printer… were they different people with differing skills? Curator: Good points. The composition reinforces this detached observation. Each vignette is neatly framed, categorized. The work demands a specific type of viewing, a rational analysis that suppresses emotional connection to the subjects represented. It strives for universality, appealing to a hypothetical ideal observer, if you will. Editor: And who would that observer be? I see in this piece not so much a desire for universality, but for standardization – fitting animals and plants into neat, manageable boxes. In a sense, a system designed to serve the interests of commerce and control. Even the paper, the ink… what resources were exploited to make this print? Curator: It’s a fascinating object—revealing as much about its cultural context as it does about the flora and fauna it depicts. Editor: It leaves me contemplating the silent labor that went into its making and its place in society at the time.