François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour, 1950, collection Fogg Art Museum, cultural mistress of Louis XV.
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.
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. 1983
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, 1983 photo: J. J Berry.
The underside of the Court is its most complex : the Calcium Chambers. This system of vats, containing dead Courtiers (their snail shells ground with carbon), is where Louis introduces water, producing the acetylene gas used to create the vacuum. 1984
Crushing of dead Courtiers for the Calcium Chambers, c. 1983.
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. 1985. 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. 1990. See Editions.
Life scale ink drawing of the Court on Mylar, the honey lines are gilded in white gold, 1991.
In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, installation view Royal College of Art, London, 1984.
In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, detail of the three specimen vitrines holding material relating the Courtiers (snails), followed by the Workers (Bees) and the vitrine in the distance the performance instruments.
Installed in Christine Burgin Gallery, New York .1990
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson Madame d’Etioles Madame de Pompadour: Pompadour Glass Rose. See Editions.
Model of Battersea Bee Foundation. Submitted for an architectural competition to find a new use for Battersea Power Station, London. The proposal required replanting most of south London with lavender, the station would house over 300 hives, a mead facility, and a gigantic glass prism to refract light into each hive. For detailed explanation see the Battersea Bee Foundation print. 1983. See Editions.
Battersea Bee Foundation. Rastern projection, model scale 1: 333. 1983
Battersea Bee Foundation, 2011, pigment print. 53 x 35 in., edition: 30. See Editions.
Explication: In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, 1991, offset lithograph, 40 x 28 in. Published by Christine Burgin, New York. See Editions.
<
21 - 23
>
READ MORE
ABOUT IN TRIBUTE TO MADAME DE POMPADOUR AND THE COURT OF LOUIS XV (1982 - 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.
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.
CLOSE