Ontvangstbewijs aan Philip Zilcken before 1928

This receipt to Philip Zilcken by Anthony Struys is like a little abstract painting made with ink, stamps and paper. Look at the way the rigid lines and typeset text are interrupted by fluid handwriting. It's almost like a conversation between order and chaos, right? The stamp in the upper left bleeds out, smearing the numbers. It's all about the process of transcribing information, but also about how information inevitably becomes smeared, blurred, and personal. The materiality of the paper itself is crucial here. See how it's aged and discolored, like old skin. The color seeping out in the stamps is like veins. These marks and gestures, though unintentional, become metaphors for the passage of time, the fallibility of memory and the beauty in decay. I'm reminded of Kurt Schwitters, who also used found scraps of paper in his collages. Both artists seem interested in elevating the mundane to the level of art, finding beauty in the everyday detritus of life. It reminds us that art is all around us, if we just take the time to look.