09/01/2026
COAT OF ARMS BOUQUET: QUEEN OF BARBADOS
For the upcoming exhibition by Cari Gonzalez-Casanova, Galerie Michèle Didier highlights Coat of Arms Bouquet: Queen of Barbados (mixed media, 2026).
Created in collaboration with florist Thomas Baldner, this mixed-media floral work translates Elizabeth II’s personal standard for Barbados into a three-dimensional, ephemeral bouquet—shifting a heraldic emblem of sovereignty into the fragile, time-bound language of flowers.
First introduced in 1975 during Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee tour, the Queen’s personal flag functioned as a mobile sign of imperial presence, asserting authority wherever it was flown—on buildings, vehicles, ships, or aircraft. Here, that notion of physical and symbolic territory is re-composed as a bouquet: durability and fixed iconography give way to organic materials that are unstable, perishable, and sensorial. What was once static becomes a living composition—subject to scent, gravity, decay, and time.
The work forms part of Isles of Dalia, a series that explores transcription, translation, and representation through the floral motif, inviting reflection on our growing fascination with houseplants and floral arrangement—and on what different ways of seeing can reveal.
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Preview: Saturday, January 10, 2026, 4–7 pm
Exhibition: January 15 – March 21, 2026
Open by appointment only, Thursday to Saturday, 2–6 pm
© Craig Burleigh