Chinese vazen 1935

This small photograph of Chinese vases by Elsa Silberstein really gets me thinking about collecting and display. I wonder about Elsa. What was she thinking when she made this? She clearly had an eye for composition, framing the vases against a heavily patterned background. I get the sense she wanted to freeze this moment in time, to capture the essence of these objects and their arrangement. And those objects, wow, they look ancient, like they are artefacts from another world, maybe she was thinking about how objects carry stories, histories. The monochrome adds to the effect, stripping away the distraction of colour. It reminds me a little of the work of artists like Eileen Agar, who juxtaposed disparate elements to create new meanings. There's something about the way Elsa Silberstein brought these elements together that really sings. It makes you consider not only what is being seen, but how we are seeing it.