Stevedores 1919

Editor: Here we have Martin Petersen’s etching "Stevedores," created in 1919. The rough lines give it a hurried, industrious feel. What can you tell me about this portrayal of labor? Curator: What immediately strikes me is the intense physicality evident in Petersen's technique. The etching lines, the very material record of the artist's hand, mirror the strenuous labor depicted. This wasn't painted, it was etched, a process involving physical force. The printmaking medium connects conceptually with the labor being depicted: It is the multiplication and distribution of work. Editor: I hadn't thought about the etching itself as a form of labor. So, do you see the choice of medium as commentary? Curator: Absolutely. Petersen isn’t just representing stevedores, he's implicating himself, and by extension us, within a system of production and consumption. The date, 1919, is also significant. What's happening socially and economically at this time? How does the materiality of the barrels factor into trade and colonial exploitation? What gets loaded, where does it go, and what impact did it have on both the consumer and the laborer? Editor: That makes me think about the composition—they're enclosed, almost trapped, by their labor. Curator: Precisely. And the artistic process mirrors the stevedores’ actions: it involves the making of something through labor. Consider what this print was intended for - to be purchased, owned, consumed. The cycle of production, both artistic and industrial, continues. How might viewing this through a gender lens shift your thinking around labour, materiality and process? Editor: It all comes back to the physical processes and social forces shaping both the art and the lives it portrays. Thank you! Curator: My pleasure. Hopefully, this gives you a bit of an expanded view regarding not only material and concept but process, too.