Exploring life and death in porcelain
- Juliette makes porcelain artworks that celebrate renewal and transformation
- She has studied art history, law, sculpture and graphic design
- She collaborates with the bone china factory in Limoges La Seynie
French artist Juliette Clovis discusses three main subjects in her work, all of which have in common opposition and duality: nature and human nature; life and death; tradition and modernity. Since 2015 she has been working with porcelain to create visually striking sculptures, and it was in 2019 that Juliette developed her signature hand shaped porcelain scales. This material allows her to marry her contemporary vision of art with traditional techniques and technology. "I belong to a movement of contemporary artists who borrow the gestures of craftsmanship, seek excellence, and add their artistic vision to create contemporary art," explains Juliette. In her more recent work, she has combined porcelain with textiles.
INTERVIEW
I transform them into hybrid beings, mixing history, myths and chimerical dreams. The female bodies are invaded by wildlife and floral elements, evoking a nature that is both soft and worrying. In one of my pieces, the human figure disappears, leaving in its place new organic bodies.
Porcelain taught me to let go, to accept mistakes and imperfection. It is an extremely demanding material that can never be fully mastered. The beauty of this medium lies in the unexpected. Over the years, I have come to understand that true mastery is not about controlling everything, but about knowing how to dance with what you cannot control.
I use classical symbols such as snakes, butterflies, chrysanthemum, vanitas, eggs and so on. They represent both life and death, and the cycle of life. I like mixing references and playing with influences and codes, trying to create a harmonious world made of contrasts and differences.
Nature remains my primary source of inspiration, particularly in its many transformations. The changing colours of seasons, the morning and evening light, reptilian molting, tides, the erosion of rocks... I also draw heavily from the work of other artists and craftspeople, from Ancient Korean and Japanese paintings to impressionism and contemporary artists like Fabienne Verdier and Henrique Oliveira.
