Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1913

This is 'Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken' a postcard made by Alice Holbach and sent through the mail. The real subject here is time, and how time leaves its marks. Just look at those smudgy, ghostly stamps, layered like half-remembered thoughts. The ink bleeds, not quite sure if it wants to be there or fade away. I’m fascinated by how the postal marks create a kind of accidental collage. It reminds me that artmaking is a conversation, a back-and-forth, and sometimes you don't know who you’re talking to, or what they’ll say in return. There’s a similar sense of layering in Cy Twombly’s work, where marks build up, obscure, and reveal each other. Holbach's piece, like Twombly’s, is all about the materiality of the medium, the evidence of the hand, and the passage of time. It's a reminder that art is never really finished, it’s always in process, just like us.