Gaia Guided by Night Constellations Visible in the Arabian Desert Night Skies
Date:
2025
Materials:
Tapestry woven with wool, recycled PETT, Elirex silver thread
Dimensions:
170 x 170 cm
Exhibition history:
2026 Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, USA
Courtesy:
Lucy + Jorge Orta. TextielLab, Textiel Museum, Tilburg
'Gaia Guided by Night Constellations Visible in the Arabian Desert Night Skies' is one of nine tapestries forming a visual story board that narrates a speculative scenario merging past-present-future worlds. Immense jungles, desert landscapes and real-time geopolitical instability recount the cyclical nature and fragile equilibrium of existence faced with planetary forces beyond our control.
The first set of tapestries depict the earth godess Gaia. She is followed by Pleiades and star constellations visible in the night skies over the Arabian desert. Stars and constellations signall the change in seasons, vital for migration and navigation reminding us of the ancestal knowledge of star gazing and the astute connection humans once had with the environment, their beliefs and their survival. Next, two desert dwellers, the 'Imperial Eagle' and the 'Flying Man', survive in the most hostile conditions reaching above 50º Celsius thanks to the stars. As mass desertification takes hold and resources diminish, three tapestries show the ruins of cities, mirroring the destruction taking hold in real-time conflicts. People are forced to flee yet resilient desert species flourish signalling hope amidst the desolation. The last two tapestries show the 'Water Gatherer' and 'Seedling Spirit', inacting gestures of care and tending to the seedlings that emerge to re-wild forms of hope.