Pipe Fitters 

Edward Arthur Wilson created this print, "Pipe Fitters," which depicts three workers maneuvering large pipe sections, symbols of the industrial age. The pipes, massive and dark, evoke a sense of both progress and the weight of modernity. Consider the motif of the arch formed by the pipe entrance, a form that echoes triumphal arches and portals throughout history. Arches symbolize transitions, doorways to new eras. However, here, the transition is into the depths of industry. Such compositions recur across time. Think of the Roman aqueducts, engineering marvels that brought life-giving water to cities, juxtapose that with the pipes here, conduits of a different kind of sustenance, fueling urban landscapes with industry rather than water. The pipes themselves are not just inanimate objects; they are vessels of collective memory, echoing the ambitions and anxieties of a rapidly changing world, and stir primal feelings of awe and unease. Observe how, across the ages, the shapes and structures we build reveal our deepest desires and fears, each form carrying echoes of the past into an ever-transforming future.