REVELATION DOES NOT KILL

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Artist: Emmanuelle RAPIN

Title: REVELATION DOES NOT KILL

Attribution: REVELATION DOES NOT KILL, 2022 Emmanuelle Rapin

Year: 2022

Materials: Dried lime leaf, cross-linked with hair and sewn, pin

Dimensions: 7 x 16 cm

Image Statement: The title is an excerpt from "The Mirror of Simple Souls" (1295) by Marguerite Porete. A dry, skeletal lime leaf. It has lost almost all its flesh. To repair it, each hair has been woven into the fine structure of the leaf at the risk of destroying it with each pass of the needle. Tiny knots of hair reinforce the new weave. In the artistic production of the 19th century, the art of calligraphy on tree leaves was developed. Completely stripped of their flesh, the networks of veins hosted a word painted in gold. These words were meant to protect. A humble and compassionate dialogue is established between the fragile beauty of the leaf and the vulnerability of the human condition inscribed in the hair. The weave they form together reinforces them. The autumn leaf falls to the foot of the tree to be born again.