Blad 153 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949) Possibly 1948 - 1949

This handwritten page, titled “Blad 153 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949),” uses ink on paper to record information about students at a Colonial School for Girls in the Netherlands. The whole piece has a lovely texture to it, all those handwritten notations and signatures layered upon one another - what stories they must tell! Look how the writer used the architecture of the pre-printed form to organise this information, a structure of lines and headings that provides a foundation for the personal details of each student. The signatures especially carry so much of the personality of the writer. The way a name slants on the page, how tightly or loosely the letters are joined, all speak to a unique individuality. This reminds me a bit of the Bay Area Funk artists, like Joan Brown, who used diaristic and personal notations in their work. Both embrace a sense of informality and directness, rejecting a slick or overly refined aesthetic, and remind us that art is, in its most essential form, a conversation between people and time.