I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Don't miss the gem of an exhibition that Kurt Andersen curated for the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (through January 9).
Essentially,
Faster, Cheaper, Newer, More: Revolutions of 1848, [is] an exhibition that draws on artifacts from Cooper-Hewitt's vast permanent collection to explore the rapid political, technological, and social changes which burst forth in and around the pivotal year 1848. Curated by renowned novelist, design critic, and public radio host Kurt Andersen, the exhibition encompasses objects from all four Cooper-Hewitt curatorial departments— Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design; Product Design and Decorative Arts; Wallcoverings; and Textiles—as well as from the Library and Rare Book Archives at Cooper-Hewitt, and from several collecting departments of other Smithsonian museums.
The title of this post comes from a poster advertising programs offered by an itinerent astronomy lecturer, and it was the first thing that caught my eye in the show, which is exhibited in one gallery.
The things that I especially enjoyed about the exhibition were the breadth of the objects included, the exceedingly intelligent and nuanced commentary that accompanied them, and the strong theme. The show includes early prints of pre-Haussmann Paris, which is nearly unrecognizable, and wry inclusions like a daguerrotype of the prototypical "editor" of the day, and other pioneering photographs. There is a section devoted to The Great Exhibition of 1851, which was "visited by 6.2 million people in six months, one of every 200 people living on earth at the time." Other signifiers of the dawn of the Industrial Age include the standardization of cheap color printing, after the advent of which, "culture was democratized" (presumably it's progress when everyone gains easy access to the same gauche things; kind of like H&M and fashion, I suppose).
Jacquard also features prominently along with a couple of other innovations in textile production and design theory, as evidenced by books contemporary to the time. The new weaving technique utilized a sort of punch card system to enable one weaver to produce a level of detail that previously would have required the labor of several assistants to achieve. Understandably, this particular innovation had devastating consequences when exploited by the owners of the means of production at the workers' expense.
Having recently spent a few days in Lyon, where silk workers marched through the streets bearing signs that said "Live Free, or Die Fighting" (and were, obviously, massacred by their employers) following discord and unrest in the industry, I have a newfound appreciation for both (a) the historical incidents of revolutionary tendencies during the extraordinary era that the exhibition explores, and (b) the tension between society and industry, both in terms of the rapid speed of technological progress and the stakes of that incredible change in the lives of ordinary people at the time.
Andersen's statement includes a wonderful passage that really frames the exhibition, and captures the spirit of the year 1848 and the upheaval it witnessed: "Imagine the political and cultural tumult of the 1960s occurring concurrently with the technology boom of the 1990s -- and multiply that by ten. Everything was strange. And for better or worse, nothing seemed impossible." Highly recommended.
