Kraag van wit linnen met open borduurwerk c. 1910

This collar of white linen with open embroidery by A.M.L.E. de Roever is a testament to painstaking labour. Look closely at how a simple, repeated motif of floral shapes and crosses creates a complex, almost architectural structure. The fabric is transformed from a flat plane into something with depth and airiness through the removal of material. It’s the absence that defines the form. The tiny, precise cuts and stitches speak of a process, a rhythm, a dedication. Imagine the hours spent, the focus required, to create this delicate object. Each tiny perforation is a decision, a mark, a step in a dance between the maker and the material. It reminds me of the work of contemporary artists like Ree Morton, who also embraced repetition and craft techniques. But where Morton used these methods to create large scale installations, de Roever contains her process within the intimate scale of the human body. Both, though, invite us to consider how art can be found in the everyday, in the things we wear, and in the processes we often overlook.