Paintings on Antique Navigational Tools Are a Poetic Nod to Bird Migration by Steeven Salvat

"In light of the current climate crisis, migratory patterns of a wide range of creatures-from monarch butterflies to terns to gray whales-are at increased risk of disruption due to shifts in the timing of seasonal changes, habitat destruction, and more extreme weather. Salvat looks to the past as a means of thinking more critically about the inherent beauty and vulnerability of birds."

""I work on carefully sourced antique maps and navigation objects such as compasses, barometers, and globes, using them as starting points to paint different bird species," Salvat says. "These works reflect instinctive trajectories and the memory of invisible journeys. Together, they create an immersive space, somewhere between a map room and a contemporary cabinet of curiosities.""

Steeven Salvat produces meticulous drawings that hybridize insects, birds, and other creatures with mechanical gears and intricate filigree, often invoking historical analog technologies such as clocks, typewriters, globes, and hourglasses. The Latitude/Longitude series, rendered in acrylic and Chinese ink, centers on navigation and cartography, using vintage maps, charts, and globes as foundations for renderings of songbirds and butterflies. The work meditates on migration and the vulnerability of migratory species amid climate-driven shifts in seasonal timing, habitat loss, and extreme weather. Salvat sources antique navigational objects as starting points, aiming to evoke instinctive trajectories and the memory of invisible journeys.

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