Michèle Jarnoux

The secret lineages of matter

« I wish to leave the paths, to seek emotion through innovation. »

Michèle Jarnoux's sculptures mix ceramics and fused glass, two materials particularly untamable that require manual expertise and patience.

Loving nature, her work testifies to the preservation of the environment and the marine world, giving nature its relief and its particularities back. It is a dream in becoming, stretched from the depths of the sea to the sky.

Committed entirely to sculpture since 201, her artistic approach is based on the search for the transformation of matter. Without a model, nor a prior drawing, the artist lets herself be carried by her imagination. The form is born from her hands. Accident and control influence each other, respond to each other, and make sense together.

« I visualize my work and my hands sculpt. My fingers are my eyes »

Her first series titled Imprints and Variations which she developed from 201 to 2013 gives birth to characters emerging from the rock, at the limit of abstraction. Then her series Memories of the Sea illustrates in 2013 her research on the effects of textured matter evoking coral and the association of glass and ceramics.

A discovery from 2020 born of a happy coincidence that the artist has analyzed and mastered since, gathers at the center of the sculpture the glass that foams like foam. The effect is particularly surprising and successful. This emergence of a part of wonder is a true experience at the heart of matter.

Michèle created in volume her feeling of nature and offers a true sculptural vision. Ready to challenge the technical obstacles of matter, she confronts the possible lineages of glass and ceramics.

« The contractility rates of ceramics and glass are totally different: the ceramic shrinks. The glass sticks to the ceramic, while the clay makes the water evaporate and continues to reduce until cooling, which can break the ceramic and the glass. »

The work plays with intimate perception. Sense and counter-sense, the transformation of discernment composes the illusion, preserving the secret of a sophisticated manufacturing process. The formal approach is characterized by a purity of vocabulary. It summons fragility and delicacy by reconnecting with the original nature to feel the force of the elements. The transparency of the glass evokes water, foam, and the roughness of the earth. Translucent, colored, sometimes opaque, the elements are worked in depth with effects of shadow and light.

A perfect readability in the arrangement of the form contributes to its particular attraction for movement. Each piece adopts opportunities for mutation. In a constant concern for the material and texture, Michèle Jarnoux is capable of dynamizing the composition by always envisioning the form as animated. Her sculptures could be diamonds fallen from the skies of a new creative world, almost vital.

Caroline Canault Art Critic