Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1918

This letter was written in 1918 by Alphonse Stengelin. It’s covered in sweeping marks, looping and rising in tone. The letter is written on graph paper, and the density of the marks creates a strange tension between the rational and the irrational. I wonder what it was like for Stengelin to make this; the care and the speed. And the pressure to get it right. I've written letters myself, and you try to be yourself, to be as human as possible. The thing about handwriting, that distinguishes it, is that no two people have the same script. Each letter is a unique way of communicating. Looking at these words and sentences, the materiality of the letter, I feel the history. I imagine him writing, forming thoughts, and trying to communicate with someone else through the distance of time and space. Each mark is a tiny monument of thought and feeling. I see so much here that connects to the wider field of human mark-making. Each artist is in an ongoing conversation, where the exchange of ideas inspires creativity.