Ledoux's French Pastoral  2017

2017

ceramic, scented oil, cork,

12-in diameter x 18 in tall.

 

Within Ledoux’s French Pastoral five periphery chambers lead to a central passage that becomes the top applicator for the viewer to smell the design. The smell contained within the periphery chambers will be that of flowers found in the French countryside. This object is a humorous take on the 18 and 19th centuries- a different form of sensorial experience snapshot-ing the idyllic French countryside that has been so popular to reproduce throughout the ages via fragrance and painting. However, this design is also inspired architecturally by the designs of Ledoux’s imaginary City of Chaux and conceptually becomes an object poem –theorizing what he dreamed of being aromatically surrounded by in his utopian urban fantasy. The beauty of his pre-modern designs- futuristic yet straightforward- focus on the movement of air, something which is critical within volatile molecular movement. Unfortunately, his plans for the City of Chaux were never realized after his imprisonment during the French Revolution. Hopefully, the viewer will also retrieve the memory or associations that they have with these smells while viewing the piece.