Karton met strook kant, aaneengeschakelde ruiten gedecoreerd met acht bloemen rond een cirkel, écru c. 1920

This delicate strip of lace, by Gustav Schnitzler, lives at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and it looks like it was made with thread and a whole lot of patience. The whole thing is built from these tiny repeated floral motifs, each like a little world, connected to the others. It’s that tension between the small gesture and the overall form that really grabs me. It’s a reminder that any artwork, whether it’s lace or a painting, comes down to these individual moments, these decisions repeated over and over, until a pattern emerges. I'm drawn to the way it’s been mounted on that aged card. It shows the process that has gone into this piece. The way the lace has been folded and pinned, points to all the hands that have worked on it and the many lives it has lived. It reminds me of the work of Ree Morton, who explored similar themes of fragility, domesticity, and decay using unconventional materials. It’s proof that art is an ongoing conversation, echoing across time.