Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. Metamorphosis

‘Julien constructs a path that does not follow linear logic, but a temporal choreography in which the places themselves transform (or transform those who pass through them).’

– Lorenzo Giusti

‘Lilith’s phrase “all that you touch you change, and all that you change, changes you” also applies to the viewer: watching means being involved, traversed, altered.’

‘Julien’s Lilith [played by Sheila Atim] is centred on the idea of change and transformation, using empathy to save an Earth devastated by climate collapse, the breakdown of social structures, systemic violence and the loss of meaning and a future never lived.’

Isaac Julien’s photographic works Metamorphosis I and After Eros of two goddesses in a playful encounter with the mirror, are inspired by the visual language of Italian sixteenth-century Palazzo Te and the fresco tradition that vigorously animates its interior. The characters of Naomi (Gwendoline Christie) and Lilith (Sheila Atim) draw from classical depictions of goddesses, and their presence is part of the long artistic history of the mirror – an object that has served both as a symbol of self-knowledge and as a threshold into other states of being. From Jan van Eyck’s convex mirrors to allegorical Baroque paintings, the mirror has repeatedly questioned how vision constructs reality, and these two works continue that line of enquiry where the mirror doesn’t show the expected image but the possibility of other worlds. 

‘…their presence is part of the long artistic history of the mirror – an object that has served both as a symbol of self-knowledge and as a threshold into other states of being.’

‘In Cosmic Narcissus and Lilith’s Moon Atim’s goddess Lilith embodies transformation across time and space. Like Caravaggio’s Narcissus, she faces her own image as both a temptation and a revelation.’

– Vladimir Seput

In Cosmic Narcissusand Lilith’s Moon Atim’s goddess Lilith embodies transformation across time and space. Like Caravaggio’s Narcissus, she faces her own image as both a temptation and a revelation. Yet she is not confined to a surface image as the mirror opens outward rather than reflecting inward. As a time-traveller in a futuristic spaceship she continues a journey of Jean Cocteau-esque cinematic imagination where mirrors become an entrance into dream states and memory – an act of crossing both mythic and personal. 

‘…the mirror becomes a site where time folds. Its surface holds the past… but also opens on to alternative histories and imagined futures.’

– Vladimir Seput

Echoing the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice – whose love compelled a passage into the underworld and across the boundary between worlds – the mirror as a threshold through which the two goddesses move is taken again as a motif in Satellite – Orpheus and Satellite – Eurydice, passing into alternate realities that coexist with, distort or undermine the architectural world of the palazzo. Within this framework, the mirror becomes a site where time folds. Its surface holds the past – the fresco traditions, the classical narratives – but also opens on to alternative histories and imagined futures.

‘She is reframing the Mannerist spectacle of collapse as a site of survival, witnessing and reconfiguration…’

– Vladimir Seput

Giants – After the Fall places Lilith – a Black goddess figure inspired by Octavia Butler’s writing – at the centre of the Sala dei Giganti, Giulio Romano’s immersive Renaissance fresco depicting the violent collapse of the Giants. By situating this contemporary, divine presence within a room historically associated with chaos, downfall and transformation from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the work creates a powerful temporal and symbolic rupture as Lilith stands in quiet authority amid Romano’s illusionistic catastrophe. She is reframing the Mannerist spectacle of collapse as a site of survival, witnessing and reconfiguration rather than ruin. Giants – After the Fall reexamines the power of myth, foregrounding a figure historically excluded from such spaces while transforming the room from a narrative of destruction into one of enduring presence.