When you look at an artwork, can you see sounds? How about visualising art when you listen to music? It may seem intangible, but that’s what Yuri Negrebetsky achieves, as he brings these two art forms together in a multi-disciplinary process.
Yuri Negrebetsky’s artistic journey reads like a contemporary nomad’s tale, one that began at the world-renowned Moscow Conservatory, where he studied contemporary classical composition before expanding his practice to encompass a broader range of musical genres and instruments. Since relocating to London in 2022, this composer and multidisciplinary artist, who creates under the name Jura Skye, has transformed personal displacement into art that literally weaves sound into memory.
Negrebetsky’s formal training laid the foundation for an increasingly experimental practice. His curiosity soon led him beyond traditional boundaries into the realms of free jazz improvisation and avant-garde techniques. Through discovering rare instruments and learning about associated rituals, he came to understand how sound can “serve as a bridge to the sacred.” This shift in perspective on music’s potential inspired him to create works that connect ancient traditions with contemporary expression.
His project, “Nothing,” represents the culmination of these diverse influences and his personal experience of displacement. What makes “Nothing” come into its own is its physical manifestation: each of the eleven tracks is paired with a handwoven tapestry created from spectrogram visualisations of the compositions themselves. Unlike the simple visualisations found in music players, these spectrograms become blueprints for complex textile art that preserves the music’s essence in woven form.
This innovative process transforms something as intangible as music into a tactile, visual art form. The spectrograms capture the unique structural elements and sonic textures of each piece, which are then meticulously translated into woven patterns. The result is what Negrebetsky describes as “an exact physical footprint of the sound”, tapestries that preserve musical moments in textile form, ranging from 90×90 cm squares to larger, more expansive works.
The conceptual framework underlying “Nothing” draws direct parallels to nomadic traditions where woven carpets served as both shelter and a repository of cultural memory. This approach reflects his belief that art should be about “unearthing and blending ancient traditions, experimental techniques, and raw emotions, elements that shape how we experience the world, often without us realising it.”
The project’s title, “Nothing,” paradoxically encompasses everything – the void of displacement, the fullness of cultural memory, and the transformative potential of artistic expression. Each piece carries distinct emotional landscapes of loss, adaptation, rootlessness, and transformation, creating a diary of the migrant experience.
Textiles have long served as sources of comfort and continuity across cultures – from the blankets that shelter us in sleep to those offered to displaced people in times of crisis. They function as repositories of memory, with many cultures passing quilts, carpets, and clothing through generations as tangible links to ancestral heritage.
Negrebetsky’s work is being produced at a time when questions of mobility, cultural identity, and belonging have never been more pressing and relevant. By creating art that can be simultaneously heard, seen, and touched, he suggests that home is not a fixed location but something we carry with us, woven into the fabric of our experiences.
More information on Yuri Negrebetsky can be found on his website and his Instagram.
Images copyright of Yuri Negrebetsky.
