Øjenvidenskildring af slaget ved Svendstrup mose. Afskrift efter Niels Krag (?) 1933 - 1934

This is a page from a notebook, filled with dense script in ink, by Niels Larsen Stevns. It’s like a field of marks, each letter a tiny gesture. The writing seems to tumble down the page, following the rhythm of thought. The page has a lovely, aged quality, the paper a warm, creamy colour with horizontal lines to guide the hand. Look closely and you can see the ink has bled slightly into the fibres, creating a soft, blurry edge to each word. It gives the text a kind of depth, like looking into a pool of water. The uniformity of the script is what’s most striking here, how the pressure of the pen remains consistent throughout, and how that relates to the practice of transcription. For me, this connects with the work of Hanne Darboven, whose obsessive, repetitive mark-making across pages and pages of work shares this quality of art as a process of committed, sustained labour. It’s this that allows us to connect across time, in a quiet, meditative conversation.