Skeletbouw 1931 - 1937

These small black and white photographs of a ‘Skeletbouw,’ or skeleton construction, are stuck onto a page in an album, made by an unknown artist using an unknown date. They seem to be documentary images, but what is being documented is still ambiguous: perhaps the early stages of constructing a large building, maybe some kind of exhibition pavilion or fairground ride. The images are grainy, like charcoal drawings, focusing attention on the linear qualities of the timber framework. They call to mind Bernd and Hilla Becher’s black and white photographs of industrial architecture. However, the homemade quality of the presentation in this album is striking, like a family record or personal collection. Each image is placed deliberately on the page, leaving a generous margin. The jagged edges of the photographic prints add to the material presence of the piece, as though it were a collage. Maybe art is always collage – taking things and sticking them together to make something new.