Woman's garment (Kira) c. 20th century

This ‘Woman’s garment (Kira)’ was exquisitely made by an anonymous artist, and the process looks intricate and repetitive, kind of like code. The maker probably wasn’t thinking about art in the capital ‘A’ sense, but just making something beautiful, and something practical, too. The surface is all texture; these tiny, vibrant stitches create depth and movement, forming geometric patterns that seem to shift as you gaze upon them. There's this one section, about halfway down on the central panel, where the diamond shapes almost float, like little windows into another dimension. It’s as if the maker found a way to map a whole world, a whole set of ideas, into cloth. I’m reminded of Anni Albers, who saw weaving not as craft, but as a medium for exploring abstract ideas, creating patterns with a very specific language. It makes you wonder about all the anonymous hands, all the unnamed artists, who’ve been having this conversation across time, one stitch, one color, one pattern at a time.