Mision San Carlos de Borromeo de Carmelo 

Editor: This drawing depicts the Mision San Carlos de Borromeo de Carmelo, created using pencil. There's an old-world feel about it, possibly due to the toned paper. What can you tell us about it? Curator: Indeed. The drawing presents a fragment of the mission's facade, focusing on architectural details. What strikes me is its engagement with a visual vocabulary employed in the colonial project. Consider the missions themselves; beyond their religious function, they were instruments in the socio-political control and cultural transformation of indigenous populations. Editor: So you see it less as a simple architectural study and more as part of a larger system? Curator: Precisely. The act of depicting the mission, even in this seemingly neutral style, reinforces its presence and power. It subtly contributes to the narrative of dominance. How might the original inhabitants have perceived these structures? That's the perspective often missing. Editor: That’s fascinating. It changes the way I see the drawing completely, realizing that the architectural representation of such building is political by default. The choice of academic style in rendering the facade reinforces those cultural power dynamics. Is there something the light pencil work can mean too? Curator: I agree. The meticulous execution also echoes the values of the colonizers, valuing order and precision, further emphasizing that claim of dominance. Thank you, the observation about the pencil makes the intention even clearer: with simple and precise lines, it does want to offer and orderly world that everyone can participate with, right? Editor: Absolutely! It's easy to overlook the layers of meaning within a drawing like this, seeing just an old building, without seeing the visual manifestation of cultural power dynamics and sociopolitical transformation of an entire indigenous population! Thanks so much.