Pleasure Dairy (2015)
plaster, wood, video
In 1564 Catherine de Medici commissioned the construction of the first Pleasure Dairy at her estate in Fontainebleau. The Pleasure Dairy, was a meeting place for Catherine and her guests to gather, recite poetry, discuss the pleasures and novelties of country life and nosh on many of the sweet milky delights produced next door in her official preparation dairy. In the late 1700's Marie Antoinette also commissioned the construction of her own pleasure dairy and took great lengths to construct this building as an exact replica of her actual preparation dairy - Rather than use “humble” materials such as wood and metal, Marie Antoinette commissioned exact replicas of each tool, furnishing and dish ware from her preparation dairy to be chiseled in marble as decorations for her Pleasure Dairy - rustic style cast in luxurious materials.
Aside : The consumption of dairy products and manual masturbation (administered by a physician) were in Victorian times, seen as an effective treatment to combat hysteria.
-for Kerstin