“In 2018, while preparing for a solo exhibition at the Villa Medici in Rome, we worked with Régis Mathieu to create a large chandelier. Régis Mathieu had made available to us the materials used to create the chandeliers in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
With characteristic generosity, he had opened wide his Ali Baba's cave and his workshops, where the treasures of the elements that make up his chandeliers are stored: crystals of all shapes, sizes, origins, styles and periods... Blackened, gilded and silvered bronzes, a profusion of shapes and materials, transparencies, shadows and lights to turn our poor artists' heads upside down.
We had the right to pick and choose from these wonders, to use them as we saw fit, and to transform a chandelier into a light sculpture in our own contemporary style!
At the time, we were - and still are - deeply concerned by the violence in the world (which is more prevalent today than ever before), and by the catastrophic climate change that was and still is threatening. It seemed to us that the world was walking on its head! We then turned the chandelier upside down, obtaining a completely different vision, and added to the luxurious material of the original chandelier some very aggressive elements: knives with bloody blades, menacing needles, as well as objects in less noble materials: glass, plastic, fake pearls, etc. (...)
Since 2018, time has passed and so has Covid.
The world is still upside down, more and more upside down, we're still walking on our heads; but today we're two artists who've been working together for 56 years, trying to step back and get some wisdom, and we've chosen to add a note of hope and light, (isn't that the function of a chandelier?) and perhaps a touch of humor, to our new chandelier.”
— Anne and Patrick Poirier
