Huîtres

Name: Huîtres - Julien Monnerie
Brand: Keijiban
Price: 225.000000 EUR
Availability: InStock

Julien Monnerie

2025

Tin

6.1 x 2.8 x 9 cm

Edition of 12 copies (all unique) numbered and signed by the artist, plus 1 artist’s proof

Price

€225.00

Tax included・Free shipping in Japan

The edition

Huîtres belongs to a series of works that Julien Monnerie has been developing since 2022. They consist in the reusing of food molds that the artist has been diligently collecting ever since he first came across them at a flea market. Most of these molds, originally produced by the company Létang et fils, were designed to give ice creams the shape of fruits, vegetables, and other motifs. Monnerie has reappropriated these objects, subjecting them to a range of modifications in terms of their shape, finish, and display that have varied according to the exhibition context.

This time, the artist has turned his attention to the motif of the oyster, an emblematic culinary specialty in both France and Japan, and an object of exchange between the two countries within the oyster-farming industry. While the piece Huître appeared in the keijiban, mounted at counter height alongside half an egg, the related edition Huîtres takes the form of a cast of its interior. Whereas the former, hollow and weightless, presented a polished shell reflecting its surroundings, the latter, with its heavy mass and dark, irregular surface, evokes a domestic ornament.

By mischievously echoing both the function of the food mold and the very foundations of sculpture, Monnerie activates a series of oppositions: full and hollow, positive and negative, public and domestic, solid and ephemeral, natural and cultural. In the manner of Marcel Broodthaers’ mussels, Monnerie’s oyster presents itself as an iconic and superbly ambiguous creature.

The artist

Julien Monnerie was born in 1987 in Rennes. He lives in Paris.

Julien Monnerie’s works are at once laconic and eloquent. At first glance, they present themselves as meticulously conceived sculptures, at once captivating and impenetrable. Often created through largely forgotten techniques, at times in collaboration with artisans themselves, they display a mastery that lifts their forms and surfaces into a realm of abstraction.

For those attuned to the resonances that each work quietly sets into motion, the wry hermeticism gives way to a network of references, some carefully chosen, others surfacing involuntarily. Culinary traditions, esoteric motifs, art-historical allusions, and even wordplay point to a fascinating constellation of meaning. In their restraint, Monnerie’s works express a quiet intensity, inviting viewers to engage with the tensions between use value and exchange value, between matter and memory.

Julien Monnerie is represented by Bel Ami (Los Angeles).

The exhibition