Louise Bourgeois

Should have write this earlier. But I did not really know what to write after I just came back. The good thing is I have been thinking about her work.

It was such a surprise when I saw the big spider in the center of Mexico City. And it was such a good feeling that I recognized it is Louise Bourgeois' work. I would not know it if I did not come to college. Managed to write a little bit about a few of her work. Not very much. But I think I would like to know more about her and her work. Maybe because she is a female artist. I can feel a lot of feminine elements in her work which is very different from the work of male artist. And I feel she is very emotional. Most of her works maybe are about herself, her life, but they are reflect life itself. She also write. live to age of 98, she must have a lot of thought about life, her life and life itself. She used her way to tell stories, to show her deep soul.

This work is called Maman. I have seen it on TV. It is a huge spider. Wikipedia says it is one of the world’s largest sculptures. It is measuring over 30 feet high and over 30 feet wide.  It was created in 1999.

Maman is a French word for mother. Bourgeois use this spider to elude her mother. She said” spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.”

I don’t like spider myself. I get Goosebumps very time I see them. But somehow I like this sculpture. When I walked around it, I can feel the legs are so strong and they are so vividly made and you can feel it can walk or run away. When I was trying to take photos, there were always people around it and underneath it. People are so small beside it. It is such an idea turning a tiny spider to a 10 feet big sculpture. Her mother must be a big and strong figure in her mind.  

The pole pieces are among the earliest fabric work of Bourgeois produced.  The clothes are her old clothes she weared  at different ages of her life. I have thought about the pole series for a little while. When I first saw them, I could not understand them at all. I wondered why it is art. I could not tell what it means. Why did she use the bones as hangers?  The only thing I could feel was the bones are very strong and scary while the silky clothes are very light and pure. So something very light and beautiful is hanging on something very strong and ugly.  A lot of her works are showing balance.  So is this also a kind of balance? On the description, it says that the pole series are her composite self-portraits.

 Each piece of the cloth is hanging on the different height on the pole. Although some is hanging higher and some is hanging lower. Just like your life, some parts maybe brighter, more successful, and happier while some parts maybe gloomier, unsuccessful, and less happy. But whatever, they are all composite of your life. Bourgeois said that her memories were her documents. These clothes form another kind of dairy. And it is so true!

The more I look and think, the more I like these work, especially the idea. But one thing I am still confusing is Louise Bourgeois is famous, her work is art. If I hang my clothes the same way, I am sure nobody will say it is art!

I see now the artist’s eyes and mind are more important and more valuable than their hands!

These two paintings are very interesting. I am not sure if I like them. When I first saw them, I did not understand why Bourgeois replaced the woman’s head by a house.  Later I found some information on the internet.

It says that these painting touch upon the problem of identity of woman. Head replaced by architecture forms resulting in a symbolic condensation of conflict between domestic and sexual roles. Architecture symbolizes the social world that attempts to define the individual, in contrast to inner world of emotion. The tension between figure and architecture mirrors the dichotomy between mind and body. 

“My work is a form of psychoanalysis. It is a way of coming to grips with my anxiety and fears. It is an attempt to be a better person.

“There is a lot of ambivalence in the work. There are many hanging pieces, which signify a fragile state. There are pieces that oscillate and rock, which also convey fragility.

“We all have pink days and blue days. I am trying to seek a balance between the extremes that I feel. I want to be reasonable.

“I think many things that are going on in the world today feed into the work, but many times unconsciously. My work is not an illustration of anything but rather it expresses an emotional state, good or bad.

“The form, the content and the material are entwined. They are inseparable from what I want to say. Each material offers different possibilities of expression. It is like playing a piano in different keys. I have no interest in materials as such, and I don’t privilege one over the other.

    “The only obligation we have is to express what we feel to the best of our ability. It must be true and it must be authentic.”

Some other works: