Orchidee 1892 - 1951

Editor: This etching, "Orchidee" by Janus de Winter, made sometime between 1892 and 1951, feels so strange to me. It's almost unsettling in its depiction of the flower, but in a beautiful way. What's your interpretation of this piece? Curator: What grabs me is how de Winter chose etching, a medium that allows for the build-up of detail through laborious, repetitive action. We see the result here. The image doesn't strike me as a simple representation, but rather, something deeply entrenched in the artist's interaction with the copper plate, the acid, the paper. It embodies process. Editor: So you're focusing on the… materiality of it? How it was made, as much as what it is? Curator: Exactly. Think about the societal implications of choosing such a labor-intensive method to depict an orchid, typically associated with luxury and delicacy. Is de Winter highlighting the craft inherent in art production, maybe questioning these notions of high art versus the artisanal? What is gained and what is lost in the transition of botanical specimen into print form? Editor: I hadn't considered that, the choice of technique reflecting on the object itself. So it is a critique of consumer culture through the artistic process? Curator: Possibly, yes, when considering production as an action of meaning. The lines give form, but they're the end product of many hours of detailed work with sharp instruments. A printed edition allows this art to be democratised in a sense, but the labor cost remains abstract and divorced from those that might collect such a work. Editor: I guess I was seeing just a flower, but the process, the artist’s labor is crucial to how we consider it, it seems. Curator: Precisely. Understanding that labor re-contextualizes the final print and transforms our understanding of artistic choices.