Galerie Hoang Belli presents the exhibition She Knows the Rain Before It Falls by Douce d’Ivry; it is accompanied by the following text.
She Knows the Rain Before It Falls is an experimental and intimate photographic series that explores our relationship to living beings, bringing together the female body with insects, reptiles and amphibians.
The images stage creatures that are often considered repulsive or insignificant: snails, frogs, beetles, snakes, earthworms, stick insects, in direct interaction with human skin. This visual dialogue, at once poetic and sensorial, creates a tension between beauty, repulsion, gentleness and strangeness, to the point of allowing a possible tenderness to emerge for these made‑invisible species.
The photographer has been raising and observing most of the insects and animals photographed for several months. Each embodies a vital function in the balance of our planet: they recycle, clean, fertilise, pollinate, regulate. They represent a natural, silent and resilient intelligence.
In a world governed by speed and new technologies, she feels a kind of vertigo in the face of artificial intelligence, which at times seems intent on dominating the world. By contrast, working with living beings brings her back to a sense of calm. During the sessions, the insects move freely across the models’ skin: they choose their own path, their own pace. We have to adapt to them, be patient and wait for the right moment. There is the unexpected, slowness, and sometimes even disappointment when the dreamed‑of image does not occur, but it is precisely there that the beauty of the process lies. These moments are real, alive, fragile and deeply reassuring: the small creatures regain their power.
The title She Knows the Rain Before It Falls echoes frogs’ ability to sense the rain before it comes, but also the feminine instinct: that subtle, almost animal perception of the world to come. It is a kind of omen, perhaps, but also a form of hope: that of a future in which we might live differently.
This series is an invitation to observe, to feel and to learn. To give a place back to these tiny creatures who, better than we do, know how to live in balance with their environment.
Douce d’Ivry : She Knows the Rain Before It Falls
Until 20 December 2025
Galerie Hoang Belli
30 rue Chapon
75003 Paris
www.hoangbeli.com
