Unsigned

Unsigned begins with a repeating cross motif found in an anonymous carpet reference. The maker is unknown. The place and date are unknown. What remains is the pattern itself — a small geometric unit repeated across a larger field.

That absence of attribution is not a gap Gordina tries to fill with a guess. It is the reason for the name Unsigned.

A pattern without a signature

Many textile motifs survive without the name of the person who first drew, wove or repeated them. Sometimes the object remains while its maker disappears from the record. Sometimes only a fragment, photograph or later reference survives.

Unsigned stays close to that condition. The source behind the design is not presented as a named historical object or assigned to a specific region without evidence. Instead, the motif is approached for what can still be seen: a compact cross-like form, repeated with measured spacing.

The rhythm of a repeat

A repeat is never only about the shape being repeated. Its character also comes from the interval around it.

Place the units close together and the surface becomes dense. Give them room and each mark begins to stand alone. In Unsigned, the spaces between the crosses are as important as the stitched forms themselves.

The eye moves down the line: mark, pause, mark, pause. A simple unit becomes a rhythm.

From carpet to garment

The change of medium alters how the motif is read. A repeated form that once belonged to a broader textile field becomes a vertical composition on the back of a cotton T-shirt.

Embroidery brings the pattern closer to the body and changes its scale. The surrounding cotton becomes part of the design, giving each cross room to register individually while still belonging to the sequence.

The motif is not copied as an entire carpet pattern. Gordina isolates one visual relationship — repetition and spacing — and carries that relationship into a new material context.

Why “Unsigned”?

The title refers to the absence of attribution in the reference available to us. It does not claim that the original textile literally carried no signature; rather, the maker and origin are not recorded in the source Gordina encountered.

That distinction matters. Historical textiles often reach us unevenly. Some survive with detailed documentation. Others arrive as fragments, photographs or unattributed references. Unsigned makes that uncertainty visible instead of hiding it.

Two colourways, one structure

The same repeated motif changes character across the two garments.

On Faded Indigo, navy thread keeps the embroidery quiet and tonal. On Faded Beige, burgundy thread gives the repeat more contrast and makes each unit more immediately visible.

The structure remains the same. What changes is the relationship between thread and ground.

Anonymous does not mean without authorship

When a maker’s name is lost, the work is not suddenly without decisions or skill. Spacing, proportion, repetition and material choice still record a human hand.

Unsigned is built around that idea. The absence of a name does not erase the intelligence of the pattern. It changes the way we approach it: with attention, restraint and acknowledgement of what is not known.

A motif carried forward

At Gordina, archival references are not treated as fixed templates to reproduce. They are starting points.

Unsigned takes one repeated form from an unattributed textile reference and gives it another surface, another scale and another rhythm. The pattern continues, but in a new material and a new context.