Marielle Debethune
Exuvia
Exuvia is a term used in biology to describe the empty exoskeleton that is left after
an arthropod has moulted. Since the cuticle of these animals is also the skeletal support
(the exoskeleton) of the body and is inelastic, it is shed during growth and a new,
larger covering is formed. After molting, it is “fresh”, pale and soft-bodied. It is during this
short phase that the animal grows, since growth is otherwise constrained by the rigidity
of the exoskeleton. The past is like the skin of those animals who leave their empty skin
alongside their path… useful for hiding, for self defence…but one day, we realize that skin is
too small to continue in it….. So we transform. The new skin will be at the beginning similar,
but softer, renderer… Grow up or hurt oneself…. we have to confront it…. I want to deal the
mutation/metamorphosis as an image of change, the hope, a new exit…… I am fascinated by
this change, this abandoned skin, the mold of what we were, the reality of “me in the past”,
the mark of an instant The weard incarnation of a change’s moment, an inflection point
between after and before The important is not the injuries, but to know that it exist,
reconstructing around, knit with a new thread…… make it beautiful without fooling
If we consider the jewels as amulets, protection objects, we can understand these jewels as
a symbol of the change, or a try of change Thanks to the porcelain, we can feel the fragility
of the objects, and the fragility of ourselves, in the intensive vibration that we felt when we
visually are going into an empty structure I will use these change, this cocoon as a symbol
of change that we make in front of our past, that past that sticks in our skin. I will try to create
an intimist jewel, which contains secrets, very silent…. Covered with a layer or sensibility,
fragility…. Creating is an act of birth, hope…