Studio Orta

'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. Planet Earth will drastically alter due to the effects of climate change, where scarcity of resources result in conflict. Yet from the ruins emerge a new state heralding the rebirth of alternative forms of life, new ways of living and being.

The images on the tapestries–a collage of drawings and photographs–depict immense jungles, desert landscapes and real-time geopolitical instability that recount the cyclical nature and fragile equilibrium of existence faced with planetary forces beyond our control.

Commencing with the earth godess Gaia who welcomes us into her green womb. She is followed by the star cluster Pleades and star constellations. Visible in the night skies over the Arabian desert they 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. Traveling along the time line, we meet two desert dwellers also guided by the stars, the Imperial Eagle and the Flying Man are surviving in the most hostile conditions, reaching above 50º Celsius. As mass desertification takes hold we witness conflicts over resources, peoples forced to flee the ruins, yet resilient desert species flourish signalling hope amidst the desolation. Traveling through time, the Water Gatherer inacts gestures of care, tending to the seedlings that emerge to re-wild forms of hope, back to Gaia.

The tapestries were woven at TextielLab, Textiel Museum, Tilburg, The Netherlands with the support of the British Textile Biennial.