Julia del Arroyo with La Dama

One of One · Cotton, Jute & Silver-Thread Rattan

La
Dama

(la da·ma)

A singular reimagining of the ancient Iberian bust – not an interpretation, but a conversation with it, realised over months of devoted craft at 120 × 180 centimetres.

The Story

"She had been waiting two thousand five hundred years. I was the first to answer her in thread."

She walked into the Museo Arqueológico Nacional with no plan. She left with an obsession. The Dama de Elche is the most enigmatic face in all of Iberian history – found in Elche in 1897, carved from limestone in the fourth century before the common era, she is a woman of extraordinary presence: jewelled, formal, serene. No one knows who she was. No one knows who made her. What we know is that she endured.

Conceived in a single moment of recognition – maker facing original – and realised over months of devoted craft, La Dama is a reimagining in cotton and jute of an object that has outlasted every civilisation that created it. Now she lives again, in fiber and knot, on a white wall in the present tense.

The Making

Hand-Built
Without Compromise

La Dama was not constructed from a pattern. There was no grid, no template, no precedent. The maker drew the figure on a piece of wood, then worked from life – reinterpreting the ancient form in the language of the rope, section by section.

Three textile identities coexist in the finished piece: the silver-grey woven rattan of the headdress, monumental and architectural; the soft sage cotton of the body, draped and feminine; and the deep onyx of the surround, which makes the figure emerge as if from stone. The rose is the only warmth.

4

Materials

120×180

Centimetres

1

One of One

2,500

Years
Universitas Miguel Hernández – Dama de Elche reinventada
Recognition

Universitas
Miguel Hernández

This interpretation of La Dama de Elche is recognised by the Universitas de Miguel Hernández that dedicates its studies to this Iberian artefact (Buscó por el término reinventada – Cátedra Dama d'Elx).

The Dama de Elche – original Iberian bust

"This creation is singular.
It was conceived for one history,
made by one pair of hands,
and it will never exist again."

Del Arroyo

Enquire About
La Dama

La Dama is a singular work – available for acquisition by a private collector, or for institutional loan and exhibition. All conversations are conducted in complete confidence.