Handschoen van grijs, beige zeemleer c. 1900 - 1915

These gloves made from grey-beige chamois leather have been preserved at the Rijksmuseum; think about the process of making gloves, the time spent carefully stitching these together. These gloves feel like they are about touch. Imagine the surface; the texture, the grain of the leather. Think about the way they would feel to wear, soft and pliant, or stiff and new? Do they smell of leather, or perfume, or sweat? In this artwork, the seams are all that defines the form. It’s the stitching that makes them gloves, that gives them a hand-like quality. Follow the lines with your eyes, and see how they suggest the shape of the hand within. There’s something both comforting and creepy about seeing gloves without hands inside them. Like a shell or a husk, something left behind. They remind me of the surrealist painter, Meret Oppenheim, who was similarly interested in the way objects could be both familiar and strange at the same time. These gloves contain endless possibilities.