Ceylon, from the Natives in Costume series (N16) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1886

Curator: So, what springs to mind when you look at this one? The colors just hit me right away. Editor: Initially, the subdued palette and composition evoke a sense of serene observation. It reminds me of old ethnographic records, a gaze frozen in time. Curator: That's neat! This chromolithograph is one of a series called "Natives in Costume" published around 1886 by Allen & Ginter, a cigarette company. This card, called "Ceylon," now lives at The Met. Can you imagine finding it in your pack of smokes? Editor: The material context provides a rich field to examine. The exotic is rendered commonplace, incorporated into everyday consumption habits, filtered through a lens of colonial commerce and collecting impulses. Curator: Yeah, I can almost smell the tobacco and paper! It is trying to sell a fantasy... but something about that guy's face—a touch of vulnerability maybe—keeps it from being just pure exoticism. Editor: Indeed, there's an ambiguity, even contradiction. We have visual signifiers suggesting the foreign and exotic -- ornamental dress, the setting's architecture, the fan--set against this individual’s direct gaze and bearing. How can we untangle this web? Curator: Good question. It's not entirely clear where representation and exploitation end, is it? Though those zigzags and curls on his patterned sarong really get to me; somehow a world is being told through the textiles... maybe something about his place of origin? Editor: Semiotically speaking, we can dissect the signifiers used, like the attire and the setting as you mention, but also the figure’s bare feet—suggesting an unimproved state of being relative to Western civilization. All creating a codified system ready to be decoded. Curator: I appreciate that! All of this is layered into one card—that now lets me pause. These quick cultural encounters force some interesting inner reckoning. Editor: Absolutely, from visual codes to cultural assumptions, artworks like these challenge us to re-examine the act of seeing itself, along with art’s complex role.