Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois was a French-American sculptor and painter whose work often revolved around early traumatic memories. Creating work was a therapeutic process for her, mixing themes of sexuality, family, and birth to make work in a range of media - including bronze sculptures, paintings, drawings, and textiles - that expressed her feelings towards events in her childhood. Her work can have an abstract quality to it, but often includes human forms, and genitalia. Bourgeois is said to have idolised her mother and felt a lot of hostility towards her father, who had an affair with her childhood English tutor. Her interest in psychoanalysis, combined with her continual and adventurous experimentation, kick-started her career as an artist.

Bourgeois’ work itself is deeply personal and emotional, which are qualities I want to reflect in my own work. Her work was created to work through her emotions and let go of the painful memories, whereas my project will be more of a discovery of my family and where I fit within it. I really admire how much emotion Bourgeois was able to put into each piece, making it relatable and ultimately successful, but still the form it takes is obscure enough for it to only truly make sense to her.

In a way, I quite like the abstract quality of her work, and how at first glance you would have no idea it has anything to do with family. However, this is quite the opposite of what I want to achieve in my work, and it's pretty far from my personal style too.