Handschoen van bruine suède c. 1900 - 1915

Curator: At the Rijksmuseum, we're looking at a photograph entitled "Handschoen van bruine suède" - or "Gloves in Brown Suede" dating from about 1900-1915. Editor: They look like a brown study to me; something about the sober tone, slightly disheveled texture, and careful construction speaks volumes of quiet intention. Curator: Indeed. Suede evokes notions of luxury and class. It implies a certain level of craftsmanship. Also, note the emphasis on the gloves themselves as subjects of study. The artist isn't presenting a wearer, just the gloves, imbuing them with a kind of agency. Editor: Right. You can almost imagine the hands that filled them; the type of labor performed. Those gentle curves sewn into the gloves' forearms. Consider the cost to acquire and tailor such soft material for a mundane object. Curator: Gloves are highly symbolic too. Protection, formality, even hidden agendas, and secret rendezvous come to mind. It almost feels like an emblem here, divorced from the messiness of real life but suggestive of something veiled. Editor: Well, photographs are illusions par excellence. But the focus on material production is vital here. A global network from farm to factory would have existed to make these. You almost smell the chemicals. Curator: I hadn’t considered it so directly, but there's a ghostliness that touches on both our points I think; this potent absent presence, bound in its physical constraints but also elevated by its suggestive potential. Editor: It is a picture ripe with possibilities – how these items move through a world, what desires were woven into these suede skins. Curator: Very well said. These gloves continue to hint at lives once lived, continuing our connection with the past.