Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1918

This postcard, made by Rose Imel, is all about the gestures of daily life; a quick note, a stamp stuck on, and a cursive hand writing an address. It feels like an instruction, or the back of a painting where the real ideas get scribbled. What’s cool is how Imel treats the surface, the material, and the incidental details – the off-center stamp, the smudged postmark, the handwritten words – as the subject of the work. All these elements sit on the surface of the card, creating a kind of low relief that is tactile and graphic. Look at how each word is formed and how the lines of the address are placed within the grid of the card. It reminds me of some of the work of Cy Twombly, who also used handwriting and graphic marks to create a sense of movement and energy on the surface of his paintings. But, this is a more down-to-earth version, a reminder that art can be found in the everyday, in the things we often overlook.