It is this divide that frames her work and writing –
Bourgeois often includes text in her visual work and has kept a copious
diary from a very young age. Split between the need for a hero to
eliminate and her desire to "twist the neck" of an immovable obstacle: her
father’s lover, Louise Bourgeois is perched between a "violent
reciprocity." As the writer
Rene Girard states: "violent reciprocity is the acting out of rivalry
between brothers or a father and son socially held in check by the
institution of kinship. The terms of the violent exchange, 'subject' and
'object' are engaged in rivalry." Speaking about her sculpture
Janus Fleuri, done in 1968, Bourgeois notes: "The polarity I
experience in a drive toward extreme violence and revolt…and retiring."
Bourgeois’ family held these elements in lock-stop, that is until her work
inextricably broke the seal.
Louise Bourgeois, Arched Figure, 2004
Courtesy Louise Bourgeois and Cheim & Read, New York
Photo: Christopher Burke
Bourgeois’ sculptures
and installations use hooks, guillotines and sculptural incisions as
flaying devices related to a disruptive past. Bourgeois uses events she
saw as a young girl during and after WWI when large numbers of men
returned from battle as amputees. Body parts are frequently the subject of
her work.
Feminist costume party honoring Louise Bourgeois,
hosted by Mary Beth Edelson and Ana Mendieta, March, 14, 1979
Photo: Courtesy Mary Beth Edelson
©Mary Beth Edelson, 1979. All rights reserved.
As the feminist artist Adrian Piper
has said: Louise Bourgeois’ "work draws us into a space where the dynamics
of power and surrender, of gender identity, the circumspection of the
body, and relation to the mother are unavoidable. It forces us to become
aware of our own status as incomplete adults." Bourgeois’ relationship to
feminism is best epitomized by events of the late 70s. In fact, in 1979,
in response to a call by feminist artist
Judy Chicago to women around the country to host feminist dinner parties,
artist Mary Beth Edelson
invited an unknown
Ana Mendieta to co-host a feminist costume party honoring Louise Bourgeois
held at Edelson’s SoHo loft.
Michelle Stuart and
Joyce Kozloff came as the "twin Frida Kahlo’s;" Ana Mendieta as a solo
Kahlo; Suzan
Cooper dressed as Louise Bourgeois’ mother and
Hannah Wilke and Louise Bourgeois came as themselves. Bourgeois brought
the champagne.
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Louise Bourgeois, The Reticent Child,
(Installation), 2003
Courtesy
Louise Bourgeois and Cheim & Read, New York
Photo: Christopher Burke
Louise Bourgeois, The Woven Child (page 1), 2003
Fabric and color lithograph book, 6 pages
Courtesy Louise Bourgeois and Cheim & Read, New York
Photo: Christopher Burke
In her current
exhibition at her New York gallery,
Cheim & Read, entitled The Reticent Child, Louise Bourgeois
references a sculpture she created for the
Freud Museum in Vienna in 2003, shown here for the first time. As a direct
response to this sculpture, Bourgeois completed a suite of 82
drawings called Il était réticent. Mais je l'ai révélé
. These drawings range from mixed media to woven grids. The works also relate
her memories of the Bievre River that flowed throughout the garden in the
house she grew up in
Antony, France where the women dyed and cleaned tapestries. A
concurrent exhibition at Peter
Blum, entitled Ode a l’Oubli, 2004, features 36 pages of
a limited edition based on a stitched book Bourgeois recently produced
called The Woven Child.
Louise Bourgeois, Almost a Nobody, (cover), 2004
Courtesy Louise Bourgeois and Cheim & Read, New York
Photo: Christopher Burke
Cheryl Kaplan:
The Reticent Child features a suite of 18 drawings titled Almost A
Nobody. The title recalls
Emily Dickinson’s poem: "I’m nobody, who are you?" You’ve said:
"Life is organized around what is hollow."
Louise
Bourgeois: Almost A Nobody refers to stairs and the idea of
climbing to success. I'm interested in people's ambition, their enormous
desire to exist in the world, to be somebody, and to succeed — sometimes
at any cost.
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