These works are inspired by Souvenirs entomologiques by Jean-Henri Fabre, particularly the chapters devoted to the observation of spiders. They explore a parallel between animal predation strategies and today’s accelerating technological predation. Three countryside spiders and a cocoon, each symbolizing an age of life, offer a poetic and critical narrative.
Birth: The Cocoon
The rise of digital technology, the decline of analog, and the echo of the Apollo XI mission.
“Rising and falling in a gentle oscillation, drifting slightly in all directions, the living shuttle, swollen with silk, weaves a pouch whose wall merges with the surrounding dry leaves. Partly visible, partly concealed by its supports, the structure is a pure, matte white. Its shape, molded into the angular space between the folded leaves, resembles a conoïd — recalling, on a smaller scale, that of the Silky Orb-Weaver.” Excerpt, Series IX, Chapter 5.
Size : 130x70cm
Adolescence: The Misumena
The boldness of punk culture, the cunning nature of the spider.
The ogre loved his own children; he ate those of others. Driven by hunger, beasts and humans alike — we are all ogres. The dignity of labor, joy of living, maternal tenderness, and the agonies of death — none of that matters when it concerns someone else; what matters is that the meat be tender and richly flavored.” Excerpt, Series IX, Chapter 5.
Size : 200x200x140 cm
Adulthood: The Banded Orb-Weaver
Created in collaboration with a CE1 (Grade 2) class, who imagined and produced a sound bestiary using repurposed everyday objects.
“Soon appear tall silk structures, betrayed from afar by the shimmer of threads turned to garlands of dew by the dawn. The children, enchanted by these glorious festoons, momentarily forget about their oranges. As for me, I’m not indifferent either. It’s a splendid sight — the labyrinth of our Spider, heavy with the night’s tears and lit by the sun’s first rays. Accompanied by the blackbird’s sonata, it alone makes rising early worthwhile.” Excerpt, Series IX, Chapter 15.
Size : 200x200x100
Maturity: The Clotho
Ninety years of French love songs interwoven with sound phrases drawn from The Spider’s Feast by Albert Roussel.
“Raw matter holds disconcerting secrets — take radium, for example; living matter holds its own, even more marvelous. Who’s to say that the suspicion raised by the Spider might not one day become scientific fact — a proven truth, a fundamental theorem of physiology?” Excerpt, Series IX, Chapter 16.
Taille: 150 x 50 x 15
