Telegram aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1909

This telegram from De Amsterdammer to Philip Zilcken, whenever it was sent, reads like an artwork in itself. I imagine it coming into being through a process of careful construction and delivery; each word typed out precisely on the page. It feels like I’m looking over the shoulder of the sender, puzzling out the message in my own way. What was the relationship between them? What were they thinking as they pieced together this message, line by line? I like to think that they laboured over each and every word, carefully selected for maximum effect. The crisp, clean surface with its typewritten letters and telegraphic abbreviations—it’s a dance between intention and accident, control and chance, that so many artists explore. Like the Abstract Expressionists, they use words instead of colors to communicate feeling, intention, and meaning. It reminds me that we're all in conversation with each other, borrowing ideas across time. Artists find inspiration in the most unexpected places, and everything feeds into everything else, creating something new.