CHARMING POTION

 

Olfactory installation, 2022

 

Charming Potion emerged from my immersion into French cultural heritage after moving to France, where I became fascinated by the country's almost mythological relationship with sauces. France has developed thousands of recipes – culinary systems built on herbs, roots, reductions, and emulsions – and this mastery led me back to an older, less visible history: the parallel world of potions, poisons, and love charms.

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As I studied historical accounts of monarchies and everyday life, I found recurring narratives that connect cuisine, herbal knowledge, and the politics of desire. Across centuries, potions served different purposes: attracting love, eliminating rivals, healing the sick, or quietly removing an enemy. Many of these practices relied on women's knowledge of plants, alchemy, domestic medicine, and food preparation. The kitchen and the apothecary were often the same room.

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This overlap between nourishment and danger, care and manipulation, became central to the project. To mask the smell of certain poisons, historical recipes advised strong garlic sauces; to enchant a lover, one might use a mixture of herbs similar to those in traditional culinary preparations. The boundary between remedy, ritual, and crime was fluid – dependent on intention, dosage, and secrecy.

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For Charming Potion, I collect vintage French saucepans from flea markets. Each vessel becomes a container for a reconstructed narrative, referencing either a historical poisoning or a canonical French sauce. I treat these objects as speculative archives. Their interiors are infused with botanical compositions inspired by herbalism, folk magic, and early pharmacology. The tension lies in not knowing which 'sauce' is benign and which hints at a darker recipe.

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The project examines how ordinary ingredients can carry symbolic charge, how domestic knowledge can become a tool of agency, and how scent and flavour can shape emotional, political, and even mortal outcomes. In this work, I explore the fine line between seduction and danger – a line historically drawn with herbs, heat, and intention.

 

 

Publications about project:

2025 “Lisa Rommé. V 2”, Titan contemporary publishing, USA

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