Installatie van de Sultan van Boeton 1938

This is a scrapbook page, with black and white photographs relating to the installation of the Sultan of Buton. I imagine the person who put this together was thinking about the historical weight of the ceremony, but also wanted to keep something intimate. They chose these particular images, arranged them just so, and added their handwritten notes in the margins. The different pictures show the Sultan in procession, crowds of people, and officials. They are like gestures, all pointing towards an event, a story. Think about the surface of the photograph itself - its graininess, the way the light is captured. The anonymous photographer was probably thinking of the subject, framing the composition to capture the moment, but I'm also thinking about how they left a trace, a feeling. It makes me think about other artists who work with memory and history, like Gerhard Richter, who uses photographs as source material for his paintings, blurring and distorting them to evoke the elusiveness of the past. Artists are constantly looking at each other’s work, remixing, reinterpreting, and keeping the conversation going.