Vijftigjarig bestaan van de Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland 1920 1920

This piece is a medal, cast in 1920 by Johannes Cornelis Wienecke to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Steamship Company Netherlands. There’s something really interesting about the texture of this medal. It's not smooth or polished. You can see the marks and indentations left from the casting process. It reminds me that every artwork has a kind of history, a record of how it was made. I’m drawn to the image of the ship, front and center on the medal. The ship cuts across the surface like a drawing, it’s a little crude, a little clunky, but still evocative, like a child’s drawing, or a memory of a ship rather than the thing itself. I find the contrast between the industrial subject and the handmade quality really intriguing. It reminds me of the work of Bas Jan Ader, another Dutch artist, who was interested in the intersection of art and life. Like Ader, Wienecke seems to be asking us to consider the relationship between the individual and the world, between our hopes and dreams and the often-harsh realities of life.