Fragment pijpenkop 1790 - 1794

Editor: This is a fragment of a pipe head made between 1790 and 1794 by Nicolaas Walter, created using ceramic earthenware. It has an aged, almost fossilized quality. What does it bring to your mind? Curator: I see a remnant, a fragment divorced from its original purpose but loaded with information about its making and its world. Earthenware was a readily available material, meaning the pipe itself was relatively accessible. Consider the labor: Who was making these pipes? How were they distributed, and who was consuming the tobacco they held? The wear and breakage suggest daily use, a connection to everyday life. Editor: So, rather than thinking about its aesthetic value, you're drawn to its story as an object of consumption and labor? Curator: Precisely. This isn't about "high art"; it’s about understanding how material culture reflects social hierarchies and economic realities. Tobacco use, particularly via pipes, had complex ties to trade, colonialism, and even enslaved labor. Do you think focusing on these things cheapens our aesthetic appreciation for its creator? Editor: I think it's interesting to understand those additional contexts. It makes you think about more than the final product, the finished 'artwork'. Curator: Exactly! And who decided this object, used for daily life, should be elevated to something in a museum? It invites questions about the collecting habits of the museum itself. Editor: That is something I never would have considered, approaching it in a historical or economic context. Curator: Hopefully, understanding art this way has changed how you appreciate, consume, and judge value now. Editor: Definitely. Thinking about the labour and production has broadened my understanding considerably.