Baggerschip 1894

This photograph, Baggerschip, of unknown date by Dorp, shows a dredging ship, a machine explicitly designed for excavation. The ship is equipped with a bucket chain dredger, consisting of a series of buckets that scoop up sediment from the waterway. The material of choice in the ship’s construction is wood, chosen for its buoyancy and workability, and steel for its strength, while the buckets would have been made from iron. The combination of these materials signals a moment of technological and social change, the transition to more efficient mechanization. These industrial materials and processes stand in stark contrast to traditional art materials. This functional machinery is a direct product of industrial society. It reflects labor, politics, and consumption as the ship exists to carry out the hard work of digging up waterways. By taking a photograph, Dorp asks us to engage with the social impact of industry. Rather than simply dividing art and craft, this photograph encourages us to consider their intersection.