From 'Fanciulla delle Ferrovie' 1991

Editor: Here we have David Itchkawich's "From 'Fanciulla delle Ferrovie'," created in 1991. It's an intaglio print, giving it a really distinct, almost vintage feel. There’s a real buzz about the image; what strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: The energy is certainly palpable, isn’t it? The print teems with figures—almost all of them looking in one direction, following that enticing female figure. It seems a study of fleeting glances and social dynamics in a liminal space, that almost theatrical set with the suggestion of a rail carriage in the background. Is this image charged by a critical view? Editor: A critical view? I'm not sure. Is it her placement, central and viewed from the back, that prompts this tension for you? Curator: Precisely! The "Fanciulla," the young lady, becomes a focal point but remains elusive, her back turned. She’s the instigator, the point of connection... or maybe, a point of *dis*connection, highlighting a very particular gaze. It has an almost unsettling quality; the figures crammed together but isolated by their own desires. Have you read anything on fin-de-siecle attitudes of social change and cultural malaise to frame Itchkawich’s creative interest in this subject? Editor: Hmm, that's not something I'd considered but I find it really interesting to think about, how it speaks to that transition point and sense of change. It's much more complex than my initial reaction of just "busy"! Thanks for making me think a bit deeper. Curator: It's like Itchkawich captured a whole novel in a single frame; the longer we linger, the more narrative threads unravel. An amazing quality for an intaglio print, I must say!