THE INCARNATION OF SNAKE BY CLÉMENT BATAILLE
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Clément Bataille’s art breathes a mystical, dreamlike tension, where sacred rites and childhood memories intermingle in silent figures and dark, reverent spaces. Each painting feels like a confined world barely holding its secrets, a reverent yet tender rebellion, both intimate and magnificent.
A historian by education, a painter and a ceramicist, Bataille likens his artistic process to the disciplined repetition of a mediaeval copyist monk. Influenced by Italian primitive art and Byzantine icons, his work often juxtaposes the structured beauty of these traditions with modern digital imagery. His process is distinctly contemporary, as he often disrupts the classical perfection of these references by zooming in on details or layering them with content taken from social media, painting, for example, a figure of an influencer set against a Renaissance backdrop, and ultimately mixing them all together in the act of painting.
Bataille’s material and color choices are deliberate and distinctive, favoring bold tones and tactile textures. His color palette is rooted in contrasts: the resonance of a blue layered over deep red, purple contrasted with aquamarine, green with orange, or the vivid pop of yellow used strikingly in details.
Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.
Gautama Buddha
On one of his recent paintings, Incarnation du serpent, a hand rises in a gesture of blessing. Coiled around it, a little red snake winds upward, pulsing with temptation, forbidden knowledge, and vitality. There is a stark contrast with the serene blue cloth draping the wrist, a color often associated with sacred rituals in churches, echoing purity and spirituality. It all happens against the endless backdrop: a timeless, mysterious space, where divine grace and earthly allure mix together.
A red, snake-shaped thread symbolises energy, duality, the female and the male principle, yin and yang. It is a symbol of wisdom of the Etruscan goddess Minerva and the Greek goddess Athena. A symbol of healing and a protective amulet.
It is a portrayal of an open, healing, protective hand, making symbolic gestures like in hypnosis or bioenergetics. It heals through this delicate balance—clothed in the purity of blue and shielded by the red serpent’s wisdom and energy.
Clément Bataille
Incarnation du serpent
Oil on wood panel
2024 / 20x25cm
