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Lot Essay
In her monumental Cell series, Louise Bourgeois materializes the inner-most layers of the psyche, creating a psychological playground where she can both preserve and confront her deepest fears, dreams, pains and emotions. Synthesizing the motifs and concerns that have long penetrated her work, Bourgeois creates an environment at once grand in scale yet intimate in content, vigorously physical yet sensuous and contemplative. In The Runaway, Bourgeois isolates her problems in order to resolve them, courageously attempting to disentangle herself from her traumatizing experiences and anxieties as she defines those things we as humans so often run away from. The result is a work both intensely private and publicly inviting; by virtually entrapping her pain in order to tackle it, Bourgeois encourages the viewer to similarly recognize his or her own fears. Exhibiting both her courageous self-examination as well as her impressive mastery of her artistic medium, The Runaway is a powerful example not only of Bourgeois' remarkable maturity as an artist, but as a person, able to examine the depths of her psyche.
The desire to give physical presence to memory as a vehicle for self-development has long fascinated Bourgeois, now taking on an unprecedented scale and vitality in her Cell series. Since as early as 1940's in her Femme Maison drawings, Bourgeois has employed the fusion of body parts with architectural constructions to explore themes of life, death, alienation, gender and sexuality. The home, an obvious catalyst to our earliest emotions, serves both as protective refuge as well as trap to our memories and painful experiences, much like the concept of the cell. Bourgeois' productivity soared during her ripened years, and in The Runaway, created while in her late 80's, Bourgeois is bold as ever. Amplifying this paradox between enclosure and escape in her creation of an architectural theatre of memory, Bourgeois engages the viewer (or perhaps more appropriately, the cell visitor) in a voyeuristic enterprise, encouraging his or her parallel self-exploration while remaining simultaneously self-involved in her own intimate dialogue.
Memory and emotion function as the lead actors in an evocative mis-en -scène in The Runaway, staging the dichotomy between the inner and outer world of the human psyche. The intimate yet distant quality of the work is reflected in both the structure and concept of the cell, with its references to both biology and imprisonment. The notion of the cell, the smallest, most basic component of all organisms, resonates with the organic form of the severed legs emerging from the central slab of marble. Much like the cell, fear (or what is ultimately disguised pain according to Bourgeois), is an essential part of the human condition, and thus must be addressed. Bourgeois states:
"The subject of pain is the business I am in. To give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. What happens to my body has to be given a formal abstract shape. So, you might say, pain is the ransom of formalism. The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses, I know I can't do anything to eliminate or suppress them. I can't make them disappear; they're here to stay. The Cells represent different types of pain; the physical, the emotional and psychological, and the mental and intellectual. Each Cell deals with fear. Fear is pain. Often it is not perceived as pain, because it always is disguising itself" (Louise Bourgeois cited in J. Gorovoy and P. Tabatabai Asbaghi, eds., Louise Bourgeois: Blue Days and Pink Days, exh. cat., Fondazione Prada, Milan, 1997, p. 196).
The juxtaposition of the cold, impersonal, geometric steel sculpture forcefully encapsulating the activated limbs arrested in a state of motion amplifies the persistent presence of our fears, inextricably connected to the human body. Bourgeois explains, "Since the fears of the past were connected with the functions of the body, they reappear through the body. For me, sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture" (Louise Bourgeois cited in "Self-expression is Sacred and Fatal," Christiane Meyer-Thoss, Louise Bourgeois: Designing by Free Fall, Zurich, 1992, Writings and Interviews, p. 228). According to Bourgeois, our earliest fears manifest themselves in the human body where they are often tucked away. Thus by giving physical presence to memory does Bourgeois release herself from her fears, transforming her pain into pleasure? Does tension mount or is it released? Should one feel solace and protection by the heavy walls, or feel trapped and suffocating by the oppressive cage? Such questions remain unclear in The Runaway, enforcing the notion that we can never truly detach ourselves of fears, but only can strive to understand them. Sculpture functions as a form of therapy for the artist, but not necessarily with the goal to resolve her problems but rather with the aspiration of maturity through the development of her own self-knowledge and awareness. Bourgeois gains control of her fears not by finding answers to them, but through the declaration of her own self-understanding.
The labor-intensive process of sculpture and the creation of an architectural environment allow Bourgeois to physically engage with the re-experience of her memories. "My sculpture allows me to re-experience the fear, to give it a physicality so I am able to hack away at it. Fear becomes manageable reality. Sculpture allows me to re-experience the past, to see the past in its objective, realistic proportion." (Louise Bourgeois cited in J. Ekman, ed., Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory: Works 1982-1993, New York, 1994, p. 18). Demonstrating her masterful abilities as a sculptor, the juxtaposition of highly polished, carefully rendered legs with rough roughly hewn marble block renders the hardened material of marble at once softened and vulnerable. This combination of the fragility and vitality of the limbs with the feeling of permanence of the material resonates with the paradox created between the cold exterior structure and its psychologically loaded contents. The motif or the pivoted mirror hinged on the ceiling and sides of the cage reinforces the theme of self-reflexivity in the work while allowing the viewer's image to enter the enclosed space. Detached yet mesmerized by Bourgeois's enigmatic cinema of memory, the viewer visually penetrates Bourgeois' dream, rendering him or her at once a voyeuristic observer and an active participant.
The desire to give physical presence to memory as a vehicle for self-development has long fascinated Bourgeois, now taking on an unprecedented scale and vitality in her Cell series. Since as early as 1940's in her Femme Maison drawings, Bourgeois has employed the fusion of body parts with architectural constructions to explore themes of life, death, alienation, gender and sexuality. The home, an obvious catalyst to our earliest emotions, serves both as protective refuge as well as trap to our memories and painful experiences, much like the concept of the cell. Bourgeois' productivity soared during her ripened years, and in The Runaway, created while in her late 80's, Bourgeois is bold as ever. Amplifying this paradox between enclosure and escape in her creation of an architectural theatre of memory, Bourgeois engages the viewer (or perhaps more appropriately, the cell visitor) in a voyeuristic enterprise, encouraging his or her parallel self-exploration while remaining simultaneously self-involved in her own intimate dialogue.
Memory and emotion function as the lead actors in an evocative mis-en -scène in The Runaway, staging the dichotomy between the inner and outer world of the human psyche. The intimate yet distant quality of the work is reflected in both the structure and concept of the cell, with its references to both biology and imprisonment. The notion of the cell, the smallest, most basic component of all organisms, resonates with the organic form of the severed legs emerging from the central slab of marble. Much like the cell, fear (or what is ultimately disguised pain according to Bourgeois), is an essential part of the human condition, and thus must be addressed. Bourgeois states:
"The subject of pain is the business I am in. To give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. What happens to my body has to be given a formal abstract shape. So, you might say, pain is the ransom of formalism. The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses, I know I can't do anything to eliminate or suppress them. I can't make them disappear; they're here to stay. The Cells represent different types of pain; the physical, the emotional and psychological, and the mental and intellectual. Each Cell deals with fear. Fear is pain. Often it is not perceived as pain, because it always is disguising itself" (Louise Bourgeois cited in J. Gorovoy and P. Tabatabai Asbaghi, eds., Louise Bourgeois: Blue Days and Pink Days, exh. cat., Fondazione Prada, Milan, 1997, p. 196).
The juxtaposition of the cold, impersonal, geometric steel sculpture forcefully encapsulating the activated limbs arrested in a state of motion amplifies the persistent presence of our fears, inextricably connected to the human body. Bourgeois explains, "Since the fears of the past were connected with the functions of the body, they reappear through the body. For me, sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture" (Louise Bourgeois cited in "Self-expression is Sacred and Fatal," Christiane Meyer-Thoss, Louise Bourgeois: Designing by Free Fall, Zurich, 1992, Writings and Interviews, p. 228). According to Bourgeois, our earliest fears manifest themselves in the human body where they are often tucked away. Thus by giving physical presence to memory does Bourgeois release herself from her fears, transforming her pain into pleasure? Does tension mount or is it released? Should one feel solace and protection by the heavy walls, or feel trapped and suffocating by the oppressive cage? Such questions remain unclear in The Runaway, enforcing the notion that we can never truly detach ourselves of fears, but only can strive to understand them. Sculpture functions as a form of therapy for the artist, but not necessarily with the goal to resolve her problems but rather with the aspiration of maturity through the development of her own self-knowledge and awareness. Bourgeois gains control of her fears not by finding answers to them, but through the declaration of her own self-understanding.
The labor-intensive process of sculpture and the creation of an architectural environment allow Bourgeois to physically engage with the re-experience of her memories. "My sculpture allows me to re-experience the fear, to give it a physicality so I am able to hack away at it. Fear becomes manageable reality. Sculpture allows me to re-experience the past, to see the past in its objective, realistic proportion." (Louise Bourgeois cited in J. Ekman, ed., Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory: Works 1982-1993, New York, 1994, p. 18). Demonstrating her masterful abilities as a sculptor, the juxtaposition of highly polished, carefully rendered legs with rough roughly hewn marble block renders the hardened material of marble at once softened and vulnerable. This combination of the fragility and vitality of the limbs with the feeling of permanence of the material resonates with the paradox created between the cold exterior structure and its psychologically loaded contents. The motif or the pivoted mirror hinged on the ceiling and sides of the cage reinforces the theme of self-reflexivity in the work while allowing the viewer's image to enter the enclosed space. Detached yet mesmerized by Bourgeois's enigmatic cinema of memory, the viewer visually penetrates Bourgeois' dream, rendering him or her at once a voyeuristic observer and an active participant.