Nadie Borggreve’s embroidery echoes and is deeply rooted in nature. Her creations have a pictorial aspect that transport the viewer into a multitude of settings. We walk through forests dressed in autumn colors, contem- plating the foliage and floral motifs before happening upon an awe-inspiring stretch of water reflecting the stars. Her creations resemble Gothic windows in how they look upward, toward the heavens; wool replaces stained glass, giving rise to astral formations. Borggreve also plays with the composition of her pieces, which she either fragments or assembles as collages.
The artist employs different techniques: tufting, intarsia knitting and a bespoke dyeing process. She makes her own colours and hand-dyes her wool. Vibrant colours with a rare depth emerge from this practice. The source of her raw material is essential to her creative process, which she regards as cyclical, mirroring nature. She collects fabric and thread that are either second-hand or from unused stockpiles. Well-worn clothes also serve as a resource; she unravels them to recover thread. By re-using textiles, Borggreve seeks to preserve their history as well as create a dialogue between an object’s memory and its tangibility.
Nadie Borggreve (b. 1991) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) where she won the departement prize for Textile and Fashion in 2016. After working in fashion design and participating in a Norwegian residency, her studio practice moved towards fine art.
