Ontwerp voor een borduurwerk 1876 - 1924

Editor: This is "Ontwerp voor een borduurwerk," or "Design for an Embroidery," a drawing on paper from sometime between 1876 and 1924, by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof. It feels like a sampler, almost, with strange little figures and a definite folk-art vibe. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's fascinating, isn't it? Look at the figures suspended within the geometric grid, each like a little ideogram. The bat, the figure in the hammock, the standing person... They are all symbols aren’t they? Perhaps not in a direct way we can immediately understand, but as carriers of memory and association, part of a personal or perhaps regional visual language. Editor: So, more than just decoration? Curator: Exactly. Consider the grid itself. It’s not just a framework, but a map – almost like an early digital image, informing where everything is in relation to everything else. Do you think the figures mean something very specific? Editor: I wonder. The figure reading could just be a person reading, or it could represent something larger, like education or knowledge itself. Curator: Precisely! Dijsselhof is pulling from a deep well of symbolic imagery, almost creating his own alphabet of visual signs. The grid provides a formal structure while the symbols suggest emotional weight beyond what appears at first glance. It's a glimpse into a system of thought. It shows how everything connects to something else. Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way. I was so caught up in the craft aspect, but now I see how carefully chosen each of these little motifs must be. Curator: Seeing how symbols speak to a culture is about unearthing lost or hidden connections. Visual traditions passed down between the older members of the community to the youngest ones, generation after generation. Editor: That’s a wonderful insight, seeing this as a little coded message from the past! Curator: Exactly! Each shape contributes something beyond decoration, reflecting history and collective ideas.