From the Sky to Textiles: ‘Land’ Series by Raphael Navot

For many years, the self-described “non-industrial designer”, Raphael Navot, has been collecting satellite images from around the world, creating an archive of oddities. This collection has come to life in his series of textiles entitled Land which are currently on display in an exhibition that shares the same name at Galerie Diurne, Paris. The exhibition marks the third installation of Galerie Diurne’s “signature” collections in which their master textile technicians collaborate with creatives to turn their works into textiles.

The collection comprises of five handwoven rugs and one tapestry that depict skyscapes from as far as Boundary Bend in Australia to Liji in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lineynaya in Russia.

Sitting side-by-side in the gallery the pieces emphasize the specific nature of each landscape with unique textures, topography and colors. Although the images are found through satellite databases, Navot makes specific decisions about the scale, settings and time zone when he captures the photograph, creating a composition that represents a fleeting moment in the lives of these ever-shifting places.

To translate these images into textiles and portray the native nuances of each landscape, an array of techniques and materials were utilized. The weaving ranges from the coarse to the extremely fine with some of the pieces having areas made with 350,000 knots per square meter. Navot plays with the contrasts of materials using linen, silk, wool and many types of velvet to capture and reflect the light in different ways as visitors move around and over the rugs.

Looking down at the world, from a bird’s point of view, Navot’s Land series encourages us to consider the world anew, finding beauty in the most curious of spaces and patterns.

‘Land’ will be on display at Galerie Diurne until April 15