Juli: paar uit Amerika 1604 - 1670

Editor: This is "Juli: paar uit Amerika" by Crispijn van de Passe (II), an engraving dating back to somewhere between 1604 and 1670. It strikes me how these figures are presented – almost as though they're specimens being examined. What do you see in this print? Curator: From a materialist perspective, I find it compelling to consider the act of creating this print. The labor involved, the transfer of knowledge, and the raw materials used in production and distribution. The depiction of these figures, far from simply being an exercise in representation, is rooted in a colonial dynamic driven by resource extraction. Editor: Resource extraction? Curator: Exactly. The engraving itself becomes a tool of empire, mass-produced and circulated. What do you think the materials themselves—the paper, the ink—carried back to Europe with each impression? Editor: Almost like an advertisement, pushing ideas of the “new world." I see what you mean about the process shaping meaning. Is that typical of art from that period? Curator: This form of reproducible media, like many objects considered “high art”, functioned to reaffirm social power structures and shape popular ideas regarding far off people. The exoticising way these individuals are depicted for mass consumption is hardly accidental. Even this artist’s role should be interrogated when asking questions about whose vision gets materialized, disseminated, and historicized. Editor: So, by examining the materials and production of this print, we gain a deeper understanding of the cultural and economic forces at play. It gives me a totally different angle for approaching these pieces. Curator: Precisely. We reveal how art is interwoven with society's modes of operation and its tangible impact on our physical world.