KURAGE / 水母

In Japanese, kurage means jellyfish. The two ideograms that compose the name could be read as the mother 母 of water 水. As in a poetic inversion, the living being turns out to be the origin of its own biotope. Physiologically, the jellyfish is barely distinguishable from the acquean element : jellyfishes are actually composed of 98% water. When they appeared 500 million years ago, the jellyfish kept the original spherical shape of the primordial cells , and were the first creatures to develop forms of eyes.

Inspired by these primordial organisms that fascinated him for years, David Balade has been exploring since 2012 the multiple graphic possibilities of jellyfish, in a series of small and medium-sized works entitled Kurage (gouaches, ink, watercolors and silver sheets on paper).