Timothy Horn is an Australian sculptor making it big in the US of A. He has recently wowed audiences with the opening of a solo exhibition at one of San Francisco's premier museums, the de Young. Timothy Horn: Bitter Suite is part of the de Young's Collection Connections series, an innovative approach to contemporary art where artists are selected to make work responding to the permanent collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Horn took his inspiration from the 18th century European jewellery, chandeliers and Chinese porcelain objects once in the possession of America's original sugar mummy , Alma le Normand de Bretteville Spreckels – the widow of the San Francisco millionaire sugar baron Adolph Spreckles. Alma was responsible for founding the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a fine arts museum devoted to European art, (you may remember it from Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo). But it was Alma's rags to riches story which inspired Horn to create the mutha of all precious rocks, a 150 kilogram chandelier - Diadem (light heavy weight), made from sugar.

Drawing from the 18th century European tradition of making elaborate table decorations from sugar, Horn imported hundreds of kilos of the stuff from China to his studio in the arid desert region of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here he worked for ten months - experimenting with methods of hand-forming, sculpting and lacquering, aided by the elaborate drawings which covered his studio walls.

The installation at the de Young of Diadem (light heavy weight), was the first time the artist had seen the work fully assembled - it was simply too big to hang from the ceiling of his studio. Walking into the gallery an amber glow fills the room, a nod from Horn to another great female personality and collector - Russia's Catherine the Great, who in 1770 created the amber room at Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg. Mirrors on the walls and floor of the gallery evoke the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Hung in front of the chandelier is a portrait of Alma, a stern looking woman, who you would imagine had a formidable personality, and yes - her gaze seems to follow you around the room.

If the chandelier wasn't enough Horn created two other works, a carriage Mother-Load, also made primarily of sugar, and Sweet Thing a lustrous wall-mounted jewel constructed of glass and nickel-plated bronze. Technically brilliant, Horn's works have always been inspired by decorative arts and engravings from European baroque and rococo - the courts of French royalty and the lure of precious objects. Charmed by the tales and truths of history, he skillfully navigates a sliding space between fact and fantasy, seduction and sin.

Mother-Load was inspired by Alma's European sedan chair which she used in her home as a telephone box. Horn took the concept and created a new narrative, a playful carriage fit for a child of royalty, complete with a fibre-optic ceiling. You can't help but wonder what kids must think when they look at this – is it real? Does it work? Can we eat it? With Mother-Load we are transported to a place where Hansel & Gretel meet Cinderella. Horn personally drove Alma's precious cargo some 1500km under desert skies from Santa Fe, New Mexico to San Francisco, California. Bitter Suite brings a new chapter to the great tale of the sugar heiress – from Santa Fe to San Fran, we'll call her Alma, Queen of the desert.

The exhibition continues until 12 October. www.deyoungmuseum.org