Ship's Figurehead c. 1939

Curator: Lucille Lacoursiere’s “Ship’s Figurehead,” created around 1939, offers an interesting study in form and aspiration. What's your initial take? Editor: It’s immediately striking! The vivid watercolor and charcoal—such different materials working together—give the figure a surprising weight, don't you think? Like it is emerging from stone rather than floating on water. Curator: That sense of emergence, of something both grounded and reaching, speaks to a complicated intersection of mythology and the realities of the time. These figureheads are always feminine, representing an idealized female form sailing with male labor and facing an uncontrollable natural world. Editor: Right, but look closer at the medium. Watercolor suggests ephemerality, a vision, and the charcoal? I am curious about that choice! Does it ground the piece, pointing to the rough, manual labor required for seafaring? The material reality contrasts so sharply with the idealized form. Curator: Exactly! We see this figurehead positioned at a fascinating point between myth and the materiality of industry. There is a complex tension: Is this woman a symbol of triumph or is she bound to that ship like so many other figures reduced to pure spectacle? I keep returning to the tension between what it appears to represent, and what is. Editor: Absolutely, and to me, the materials emphasize that point. I am left pondering on what role materiality and the artist's touch has in shaping our understanding of labor. Lacoursiere uses the medium to highlight these competing tensions inherent to both sailing and the symbol of a ship’s figurehead. Curator: It leaves you considering power structures that define cultural representations! Lacoursiere's piece functions, at least for me, as an introduction into critical questions about those at sea, what is being produced at the hands of labor, and who it actually benefits. Editor: Definitely. Considering the date, on the cusp of global conflict, it all encourages thoughts on broader issues like resource consumption. A very affecting composition overall. Curator: It definitely prompts deeper thought when considering it in relation to those significant historic points. It reveals complexities of symbolism and material existence during a tempestuous time!