Garniture on a Yellow Ground
From the series "Ordre ou désordre"

Like metonymies, Richard Milette’s sculptures refer to known quantities, in this case, to stereotypical or other historical Chinese ceramics. Here, he is inspired by Chinese porcelain, monochrome enamel vases from an eighteenth-century export garniture to create a conceptual work that nullifies both their original function as containers and their worth as construed Western objects of prestige. The inscriptions in large cartouches encourage the viewer to seek a narrative connection, but the artist inserted his own wordplay, thus subverting the system of values that saw these objects as exotic cultural signifiers.