Studier af forskellige fuglearter 1864 - 1941

Curator: My first thought: whispers. Editor: Exactly. We’re looking at a spread from a sketchbook containing various bird studies, the artist Niels Larsen Stevns at SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark. This sketch consists primarily of pencil, with a few accents of color pencil for detailing on the page. Stevns produced this sketch across a long timeframe, with works spanning 1864 to 1941. Curator: See, I felt quiet and muted. It's almost like catching glimpses, catching moments. Not fully there, just sketched, fleeting… Editor: Yes, I read this as visual shorthand, these gestures represent the presence and potential of these organic entities, it is a theme heavily echoed through modernism’s interpretation and connection to nature. As society moves toward more industrialization, a stark commentary on environmental conservation grows as well. Curator: True. I’m also thinking about how birds have historically symbolized freedom, or even messengers between worlds in many cultures. Consider their gender implications and relative social freedoms based on varying societal dynamics in different historical circumstances. Editor: And how the use of a sketchbook format contributes. This isn't meant for display initially. It’s the intimate space of study. The immediacy allows an intimacy. I find something beautiful in the unfinished quality. Curator: It creates such an interesting dialogue around authorship, doesn't it? Who is this "for"? Stevns or posterity or a kind of conversation he was having with himself about understanding forms, and also what that understanding really means and how it shifts. This feels so far outside the traditional, patriarchal lens of landscape work... Editor: I agree. What feels most resonant is the open, unfixed aspect. As we recontextualize the sketchbook in this setting, this dialogue continues in real time, allowing our listeners to interact, change, critique, and celebrate it at once.