Perforated shells, once mere remnants of marine life, became some of the first objects to adorn the human body. By piercing their surfaces, these forms shifted from the incidental to the emblematic – no longer seen only as is, but as if, holding the promise of something beyond themselves. This gesture, small but significant, marks a moment in which symbolic thinking began to crystallize.
Today, a similar movement unfolds under the fluorescent lights of the laboratory: horseshoe crabs, held in place, their blue blood drawn to test for contamination in new medicines. Sea snail toxins altered into anesthetics. The surface is opened again, and with it, a lingering desire to access what lies beneath.
What unfolds is a persistent inclination to decode the world through surfaces – stretching the associative links that shape how objects are read, handled, and believed. Instruments of classification and preservation do more than register facts; they project narratives onto the natural world while concealing their own logics. Within these systems, myth persists – not as fiction, but as a mode of making meaning when certainty remains out of reach.
Images:
1.
Installation view of Perforating the Shell, Galleri Mejan 2025. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
2.
Coy Reaching (2025) Copper, glass enamel, 52 x 14 x 1 cm. Photo: Jost Maltha
3.
Appendage III (2024) Soapstone, 9 x 4 x 4 cm. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
4.
Gnawing (2025) Elm wood, aluminium, fossils, motor, 480 x 65 x 9 cm. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
5.
Gnawing (detail) (2025) Elm wood, aluminium, fossils, motor, 480 x 65 x 9 cm. Photo: Jost Maltha
6.
Mapping a Landscape (2025) Walnut wood, paper from wasp nest, 170 x 50 x 14 cm. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
7.
Perforating the Shell (2024) Soapstone, aluminium, silicone, 23 x 15 x 29 cm. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
8.
Perforating the Shell (detail) (2024) Soapstone, aluminium, silicone, 23 x 15 x 29 cm. Photo: Daniel Browne
9.
Appendages (I&II) (2024) Soapstone, aluminium, silicone, 11 x 8 x 4 & 15 x 5 x 4 cm. Photo: Jost Maltha
