Study of a Vase 

Curator: I find this delicate pen and ink drawing, called "Study of a Vase" quite charming. Its academic style points toward an interesting area of craftsmanship. What are your immediate thoughts on the object itself? Editor: The draftsmanship has an air of someone who wants to represent status; a luxurious and somewhat intimidating artifact given the formal flourishes and almost severe verticality, though the unfinished character of the work brings something new to it. I immediately want to know: who would have owned it? Curator: Exactly, what does access to items of great symbolic and literal wealth reveal about cultural power at the time? Without a date it's hard to place this in time exactly, but we can examine vases themselves, their production and what their forms and designs tell us. Editor: Right, the labour that goes into these artifacts is critical to understanding power dynamics. How the artists of vases historically would have been thought of, what class would they belong to, what designs they would bring from what cultures. We need to consider the socioeconomic realities of vase making, its techniques. Curator: Absolutely, considering vases and what they held reveals so much about social practices and ritual – their place in society. It could point to networks of commerce and also exploitation – the conditions that produce this art. This intersects with a number of histories. Editor: And considering the materiality, from the clay itself, what area it comes from. Were workers in clay or other material subject to hazardous extraction processes or work conditions? Curator: Yes, those considerations would expand our awareness of cultural contexts beyond purely aesthetics. This drawing becomes a powerful node linking art, labor, and cultural histories. Editor: Absolutely; these detailed drawings give us such a clear point from which to ask all of these social and materials-related questions. What more can a work of art ask for!