Het nut van de dierenhuid 1865 - 1875

Curator: Editor: Here we have "The Usefulness of Animal Hide," a lithograph print made sometime between 1865 and 1875 by George Lodewijk Funke. What strikes me is how it breaks down a complex process into these almost diagrammatic scenes, each illustrating a different stage of leather production. What are your initial thoughts? Curator: The breakdown is interesting because it reveals labor as fractured, separated across processes. Think of the tanning process. Immersion in dye or treatment, stretching. What are the social and labor implications in an era where "usefulness" is prized as virtue and social value? Editor: So, the choice of lithograph makes the material visible? Because lithography allowed for easier reproduction, it meant these processes were visible to more people. I guess I'm thinking about the accessibility of the process it portrays... was there some economic or political function of this visibility? Curator: Precisely. The lithograph makes visible an expanding world of mass production and dissemination. Consider what is lost from this view of craft? The smell of hide tanning, for instance, would not be available for more refined, "sensitive" noses... The print creates a new, sanitised consumption experience, but in doing so creates distance from laborers. Where might we find some clues regarding labor itself? Editor: Looking at how each stage is depicted, it's as though the individuals performing these jobs are almost interchangeable, nameless, like cogs in a machine. So it’s not about craft or artistry, but rather the *function* of the hide? Curator: Exactly! Think of how we’re invited to see leather not as a material rooted in specific cultural practices and places, but as an exploitable natural resource that meets society’s demands. Editor: I’d never considered how something that appears to just demonstrate production methods could reveal underlying social values about labor and consumption. Thanks! Curator: And I find myself rethinking how even seemingly neutral images can uphold powerful economic ideologies.