Still life 

Editor: This is Martiros Sarian's "Still Life," made with oil paint and possibly impasto. The fruits really seem to leap off the canvas. What are your thoughts on it? Curator: Thinking materially, it's about the commodification of nature through paint. Oil paint itself, born from industrial processes, transforming readily available food into a desirable, consumable object for the burgeoning middle class. I wonder what grade of oil Sarian was using? Student grade can be very different from a refined, professional one. Editor: That's interesting, the thought that even the materials themselves reflect a certain level of access and consumption. Do you think Sarian was trying to make a statement? Curator: Perhaps unconsciously. What he presents isn’t just a pretty picture. Look at the grapes – mass-produced like beads. Consider the canvas beneath; what kind of weave is it? That all factors into the perceived ‘value’. This "art" exists squarely within systems of exchange. Even its presentation hints at consumer desire! What’s the ratio of pigment to binder, I wonder? Too much oil, and it could yellow horribly. Editor: I never considered all of that just by looking at fruit. Thinking about labor, like who harvested this, who painted, and now who views… It connects seemingly disparate systems. Curator: Precisely. High art, no matter the subject, is rarely divorced from mundane industry. Every brushstroke represents someone's labor. Editor: So, what started as what I thought was a classic still life, has morphed into something way more complicated… Curator: Which is why material analysis is so vital. We go beneath the image, tracing the artwork’s origin through the complex web of creation and consumption.