Installatie 1931 - 1937

This anonymous installation photograph, mounted in an album at the Rijksmuseum, looks like a scene from a bygone era. I love the long metal table with its orderly row of spigots. I wonder who the artist was? What kind of lab was this? It looks like a mad scientist's workshop, all dials and heavy metal. I can almost feel the cool, hard surfaces under my fingers. It reminds me of some of Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs. I wish I knew more about it. The surface is so worn, you can imagine how the original maker might have been constantly tweaking things, adjusting, experimenting. It feels like the making was very physical, like a dance or a fight. The anonymous artist has laid out a world for us. I see these objects and I feel a deep connection to the past.