The Molting Season

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Launched in 2024, the series The Molting Season marks a new stage in the evolution of Juliette Clovis' work. While retaining the porcelain scales that have become her signature, she breaks free from volume to return to the wall with a series of porcelain tapestries composed of thousands of biscuit scales, glazed or covered with precious metals, fixed one by one onto large cotton canvases. A true encounter between two seemingly incompatible worlds—the fluidity of textiles and the rigidity of ceramics—these tapestries form skins in motion, their mineral rigidity blending with the suppleness of the fabric. The molting season refers to all the forms of transformation that can be found in nature. The thousands of scales obviously evoke reptilian skins and their fascinating molting process, but we can also see in these tapestries the branches of trees stripped bare in winter after the autumnal loss of their leaves, or imagine the tiger stripes of big cats regenerating their fur, or the transformation of colors with the passing of the seasons or the onset of evening; these endless cycles remind us of our own inner cycles. Movement is at the heart of this work. All its folds, twists, and hints of breath are a way for the artist to make the living visible, to make us feel life and its movements.

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