Acht handtekeningen geplakt op een blad met palmbladeren en decoratieve rand 1904

Curator: Looking at "Acht handtekeningen geplakt op een blad met palmbladeren en decoratieve rand," which roughly translates to "Eight Signatures Glued on a Sheet with Palm Leaves and Decorative Border," a drawing by George Lourens Kiers, made in 1904 and held here at the Rijksmuseum, it's clear there's an intention beyond mere documentation. Editor: My first thought is of Victorian-era scrapbooks—an almost scientific collecting instinct blended with the decorative impulse to showcase rare findings. I get the feeling that Kiers savored holding on to those fleeting brushstrokes. Curator: Precisely. Kiers utilizes pen on paper to assemble these disparate signatures, unified only by their adhesion to the palm frond background, creating this singular artwork. It appears as though each signature represents someone within Kiers' sphere of influence, a circle he wished to memorialize. The botanical framework gives a kind of natural, or maybe exotic, feel to the composition. Editor: Absolutely. The palm fronds feel like an embrace, turning personal connections into works of art and transforming simple identification into almost a ceremony. Signatures can sometimes reveal things the person cannot. Do you know anything about these signatures, perhaps these eight lives he has carefully collected? Curator: Alas, I don't, and therein lies the mystery and perhaps a deliberate act on Kiers' part to give prominence to what’s otherwise forgotten. The placement mimics formal portraiture—but without the portraits themselves. A trace without a presence! Editor: In that way, it makes me think about the transient nature of fame and friendship. These scribbles exist almost like ghosts of an era, secured delicately, so they’re not lost forever to time. What did their handshake feel like, their presence, what were their thoughts about what it would mean to leave their unique mark in the world. Curator: A lovely reading of that. Ultimately, it suggests that the real art here is perhaps less about individual notoriety and more about how social networks get visually imagined. Editor: True. It does lead me to think differently about archives and how we value preserving a bit of ourselves or others’ stories and our marks for those yet to come. A gentle nod toward the value of personal and cultural relics, for both Kiers and ourselves, after all.