FRANZ WEST Franz West’s Les Pommes d’Adam takes its name from the Adam’s apple, a bump visible in front of the voicebox on some people’s throats. When the sculpture premiered in Paris’ Place Vendôme, the seat of French government, in 2007, however, the public interpreted the gathering of bubblegum pink sculptures in a slightly more provocative way, locating the reference lower on the male torso. West would likely have reveled in the confusion, having once said, “it doesn’t matter what art looks like, but how it is used.” 1 These works purposefully breach the Wittgensteinian line between tool and work of art:2 For those who interact with West’s Paßstücke, “the experience of the work would not be purely or even primarily internal. Rather, it would be an unchoreographed dance without music.”3 Among his earliest works are the Paßstücke, or Adaptives, a series of small, portable plaster objects (exhibited at MASS MoCA in 2002), that are meant to be picked up and manipulated by the viewer. The objects’ use—and therefore meaning—changes for every participant according to how they choose to interact with the work. Some might be utilized as bookends or flower vases, while others may be displayed on sculptural plinths. Les Pommes d’Adam,
like West’s Paßstücke, is infused with humor and a particular delight in visual and linguistic puns. It pokes, provokes, and makes us reconsider our physical and psychological relationship to art. Many of West’s large-scale sculptures are designed to be displayed in outdoor public settings, rather than inside conventional museum or gallery spaces. In its previous public presentation, Les Pommes d’Adam was installed in close proximity to the Vendôme Column, on top of which stands a statue of Napoléon Bonaparte in Roman garb. The Vendôme Column is covered in a spiraling bas-relief, depicting Napoleon’s victorious military campaigns. Reinforcing the message of conquest, the column itself was forged from the metal of cannons captured by French forces during the Battle of Austerlitz. West’s presentation of Les Pommes d’Adam at the Place Vendôme engaged and perhaps parodied Napoleon’s column, prompting viewers to reinvestigate it and its role in the history of Paris and France. The idiomatic
Franz West, Les Pommes d’Adam, 2007. Epoxy, metal, paint and concrete. 4 parts, each approximately 25' tall. Place Vendôme, Paris, 2007.