Installatie van de Sultan van Boeton 1938

This undated photo album page, by an anonymous artist, shows an installation of the Sultan of Boeton. It’s a collage of black and white photos set against a brown page, overlaid with handwritten notes in white ink. There’s something deeply moving about seeing these images fixed to the page. Look at the torn edges of the photos, their textural contrast against the smooth brown background. Each image is a fragment, a captured moment. My eye is drawn to the top right picture, a procession of figures, stiffly posed, with the bleached sky behind them. The figures look quite formal, there is something about the flatness of the grey ink that lends an antique, grainy feel. It reminds me of the work of Sarah Charlesworth. Though her work is often on a much grander scale, here, like her, the artist makes us question how images acquire meaning and how the act of display affects our understanding. In the end, art’s all about looking and rethinking, isn’t it?