Guerilla Restoration

Pointes de Lance du Palais Royal
Ceramic, gold glaze. H 26 x ⌀ 80 cm
James Heeley, Bernd Kuehn. 2023

A hidden jewel in the heart of Paris, Palais Royal over the centuries has been home to dreamers, romantics and the rich and famous - Richelieu, Molière, Anne d’Autriche, the young Louis XIV, the Duke of Orléans, Colette and Jean Cocteau to name but a few. The existing railings with their distinctive golden spikes date from 1780, when the original Palace and gardens built in 1628 were encircled by a pedestrian arcade of galleries, cafés and ‘salons’.

Today, there is a constant threat to the domain’s fragile beauty. In recent years, some of the iconic golden spikes that surround the gardens have gone missing and not been replaced. Commissioned by James Heeley, each one of these golden spikes in ceramic and gold glaze is a full-scale model, sculpted and handmade by Kuhn Keramik in Berlin. In an act of ‘geurilla restoration’ one of these ceramic spikes takes the empty place of one of the missing.

Available exclusively at Heeley, 34 Galerie Montpensier, 75001 Paris.