Leprozenkolonie Danaradja: personeel en bezoeker 1922

This is a series of gelatin silver prints, assembled to form a collage, documenting the Danaradja leper colony, made by an anonymous artist, at an unknown date. The sepia tone of the prints, and the arrangement, gives the work a feeling of found-ness, like an archive that is both historical and personal. The image at the bottom shows people preparing food. I love the texture, the repetition of bowls, and the blurred sense of the everyday, right next to an image which suggests an altogether different world. The images are documentary, but the artist has chosen to present them in a way that is both playful and revealing. It reminds me of the work of Martha Rosler, who also uses collage to explore the relationship between the personal and the political. Art is an ongoing conversation, a conversation between artists and artworks, across time and space.