Kale bomen aan een plas 1850 - 1913

Editor: This is "Kale bomen aan een plas," or "Cabbage Trees by a Pool," an etching by H. van Meerbeeck from somewhere between 1850 and 1913. The monochromatic image feels very quiet and still to me. What strikes you most about this work? Curator: What grabs me is the implied labor within what appears as a serene landscape. Who toiled to cultivate these cabbage trees? Landscape art often obscures the relationship between humans and the environment. This piece makes me think about the back-breaking work that underpinned rural economies and hierarchies of class. It asks us to consider how representations of nature can sometimes sanitize very unequal conditions of labor. How do you perceive the relationship between humans and the natural world in this piece? Editor: That’s an interesting point; I hadn’t thought about that! I was just seeing the trees, the water...the reflection. Now I am seeing absence, the people who aren’t there, yet are part of the story. It reminds me of how landscape painting, during colonial times, depicted colonized lands, omitting the indigenous population who were already there. Curator: Precisely. And it begs the question: whose perspective are we seeing? Who is granted the privilege of leisure to contemplate a picturesque view? It challenges the myth of an untouched, "natural" world, instead highlighting its entanglement with social and economic realities. Editor: So, even a seemingly simple landscape etching can open up discussions about labor, perspective, and even colonialism! I will definitely look at landscapes differently from now on. Curator: Indeed. Art provides us a chance to reflect on societal power structures. Considering art from an activist perspective enables new dimensions of interpretation to come to light.