Blad 42 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949) Possibly 1932 - 1938

This is a page from a ledger, probably made with ink and paper in the Colonial School for Girls and Women in The Hague between 1930 and 1949. The grid-like structure of this page reminds me of early conceptual art, in which systems are set up as a way to find new ways of making. Look at the handwritten names and addresses, next to these are glued-in portrait photographs of young women. Each photograph is different, some are formal portraits, others are more casual, candid snapshots. In the bottom right-hand corner, there's a young woman standing on some steps. The texture of the image is created by the contrast between the matte paper and the glossy photographs. The handwritten words, the signatures, and the faces all combine to form a social landscape and a kind of collective portrait. It reminds me of the work of Christian Boltanski, who also used found photographs to create works about memory and identity.