PAUL ETIENNE LINCOLN
In Tribute to Madame Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV
(1983 - 1991)
In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV is an elaborate machine evoking a celebration of the Enlightenment in eighteenth century France. Its focus is the cultural, economic, and political systems at Versailles, particularly Madame de Pompadour’s relationship to Louis XV and his various courtiers. When operative, live bees and snails run the machine’s main conical structure. The bees produce the cultural wealth (honey) of the society and the snails (courtiers) consume and distribute it for various physical and symbolic purposes. The machine is an intricate model of a society, one incapable of growth or even sustaining itself: a metaphor of a thwarted paradise.
21 - 21
>
In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, installation view, Royal College of Art, London, 1984.
Second Performance of In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, Coracle Press at Kettles Yard, Cambridge, England, 1985.2
The Court being prepared by an assistant dressed with a clipped yew, referencing the Ball of the Yew Trees, the first official visit of Madame de Pompadour to Versailles in 1745.
Filling the Courtier’s plates with honey, during the Initiation Ceremony, film still, 1985.
A prepared colony of bees, Apis mellifera, entering the Court’s specially prepared hive, film still, 1985.
The Courtier’s honey plates fanning around the central Vacuum Chamber of Madame de Pompadour, film still, 1985.
Device worn on the wrist ensures the correct number of windings of silk thread to the lifeline bobbins of each Courtier.
Soil samples being taken at Versailles in the early spring of 1983, photo: J. J. Berry.
Collecting snails from different chateaux previously owned by chosen Courtiers, these samples were transported to England for selective breeding, photo: J. J Berry
The underside of the Court is possibly its most complex part: the Calcium Chambers. This system of vats, containing dead Courtiers (their snail shells ground with carbon), is where Louis introduces water, thus producing the acetylene gas used to create the vacuum.
The underside of the Court is possibly its most complex part: the Calcium Chambers. This system of vats, containing dead Courtiers (their snail shells ground with carbon), is where Louis introduces water, thus producing the acetylene gas used to create the vacuum.
Honey is distributed by the Courtiers by lifelines attached to their shells. The acetylene gas redirects the flow of honey to fill the Cape at night and the Reservoir of Accumulated Resources during the day. This honey was used in an edition together with the perfume from the Court. See editions.
Over forty drawings explain the workings of the Court; this example charts the progress of each Courtier during the four weeks of the second performance, 1985
A vitrine of editions relating to the Court and two snail progress charts in the drawer. See editions.
Full sized ink drawing on Mylar of the Court the honey lines are picked out in white gold. 1991. Private Collection.
In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, installed at the Royal College of Art, London .1984 Private Collection.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson Madame d’Etioles Madame de Pompadour- Pompadour Glass Rose. See Edition.
Model of Battersea Bee Foundation, submitted for an architectural competition to find a new use for Battersea Power Station. Submission required re-planting most of South London with lavender. The station would house over 300 hives, a mead facility and a gigantic ground glass prism for refracting light into each hive cluster. See Edition.1983.
Battersea Bee Foundation east projections. Model Scale 1.333 .1983. Private Collection.
Battersea Bee Foundation (1982), 2011. Pigment print. 53 x 3 inches. Edition of 30. See Edition.
Explication: In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, 1991. Offset lithograph. 40 x 28 inches. Published by Christine Burgin. See Editions.
<
Madame de Pompadour is neither a bee nor a snail: she is an artificial vacuum, an enigma, invisible. Her presence is manifested solely through an olfactory trace, a specially prepared perfume (reputed to have been her favorite), emanating from the Hyacinth Chamber. Louis XV (a snail) controls water to the Court; his duties include watering the vats on which the Court rests. These vats are packed with crushed snail shells prepared with carbon to form calcium carbide. The King’s watering of this substance causes a vigorous reaction, releasing an anesthetic (acetylene, C2H2). This gas is piped into the main piston mechanism to create a vacuum in the glass chamber: Madame de Pompadour. She, in turn, invisibly controls—through her vacuum—the honey chambers of all fourteen courtiers, wafting her perfume into the hive, inciting the worker bees to venture out of the court and forage for fresh nectar and pollen, leading to the possibility of swarming and abandonment of the hive.
For a full explanation of this project please consult Explication: In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, New York: Christine Burgin, 1991
PRINTS & EDITIONS