“… she clicked and rose from her desk. Muscles frozen by screen time unfurled and concentration fell off her like cold river water. She broke surface into the evening sun at the back window.

The street below was quiet. The only movement was on the horizon, where towers of cumulus built along the coast and up, into the cobalt, pink and blood orange. She thought about her mother and watched a small nearby cloud skid north across the roofs – a pale sailing ship trailed by wispy outliers that a wind curled into sharp birds beating home.

Cobalt became ink and she turned to her kitchen and the wine bottle by the toaster. She came back as the ship became a lunatic head, on its back, cackling at the sky. Tannin soaked into her tongue and her pupils dilated as rose darkened. It had been sixteen months. The mouth of the crazy head was wide open. A smoke coloured bird lifted up and out, spectral wings pointed down on each side as it ascended.”

Page Not Found proudly presents the fourth chapter of Open Letters. The project invites The Hague artists to occupy our large storefront window with messages of urgency and vulnerability. 

Janice McNab is a Scottish artist and academic who now lives in the Netherlands. She was born in Aberfeldy, studied at Glasgow School of Art, and in 2000, moved to Amsterdam on a Scottish Arts Council residency programme. Her PhD is from the University of Amsterdam, and she is Head of the MA Artistic Research at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. From 2020-2022 she is also a post-doctoral scholar with The University of the Arts, The Hague / Leiden University.

This open letter will be unveiled on 8 October 2021 and will be up for view until 8 November 2021.

Open Letters are freely accessible from the street at any time.