Heather Creet
Madame de Pompadour Records the Future

I make playful reference to the highly valued figurative pottery, so popular with collectors in Tasmania, made by often unnamed artists working for large potteries such as Meissen, Se'vres and Stafforshie, during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

My intention with this small figurine is to acknowledge the achievements of a remarkable 18th Century woman, who not only had wit and beauty, she was mistress to Louis XV, a leading patroness of the arts, architecture and literature and a prime mover in the politics of her day. However her greatest achievement in my opinion, was her founding of the Se'vres Royal Porcelain Factory, undoubtedly with considerable assistance, non the less she certainly managed to 'break the glass ceiling'.

Madame de Pompadour sits atop heer jewellery box her foot extended to trip the unwary while recording the present day with her handycam. What does she make of Tasmania, a place unknown to France in her time, where women from all backgrounds can achieve great things, limited only by their own abilities and desires.