ARTIST'S SKULL 2015

Curator: This graphic work by Rah Crawford, called "ARTIST'S SKULL" from 2015, immediately grabs your attention, doesn't it? The visual impact is undeniable. What’s your initial take? Editor: Striking! And, I'm interested in the choice of, what looks like digital illustration as a medium. It’s clean, almost mass-produced, yet evokes very personal themes. The process seems key. Curator: Absolutely. The skull, of course, is a loaded image throughout art history—a symbol of mortality. But here, combined with the words “Make Art Then Die,” it transforms into something more like a modern-day memento mori. Editor: I find it intriguing that the lettering almost becomes the skull itself; it merges language and image so fully. The layering feels very deliberate. How does the material relate to Crawford’s message about labor and artmaking? Curator: Well, consider the duality. The crispness and the pop art sensibilities hint at something accessible and reproducible—mass culture. But this clarity starkly contrasts the rawness of the sentiment—the inherent struggles of the creative life. Editor: The blood dripping from the paintbrush used as a bit reminds me of the bodily fluids in expressionist works. I think it is a poignant visual critique about the commercial art system where individual labor and vision can sometimes be chewed up, used and destroyed in a relentless creative marketplace. Curator: That's a compelling interpretation, focusing on the artist’s labor and place. Considering artmaking as work brings forward important questions of cultural value, personal investment, and the inevitable cycle of creation and… obsolescence. It serves as an eerie, yet potent reminder. Editor: I concur. I think there’s also a quiet commentary on how the commodification and relentless need for "newness" consumes talent while only sometimes elevating it. It's more profound when understood against the history of artistic production. Curator: Yes! In seeing that duality reflected back at the viewer is the unique symbolic power of this piece. Thank you for providing new frameworks of looking! Editor: My pleasure! The social dimensions and context, alongside that iconic skull image—quite compelling!