Louise Bourgeois at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
“I Give Everything Away”
Between the year of 1911 – 2010, Louise Bourgeois worked
with a wide range of materials, from stone and steel to rubber and fabric to
make sculptures, installations, paintings, drawings and works in fabric.
This show brings in a selection of the artist’s graphic work
including drawings, etchings and writing, all of which offer routes into her
thinking.
Louise Bourgeois is regarded as one of the most important
artist of our time.
This is exciting for me because this has a large relation
towards what I am looking into.
I have been looking at notes written by people to
communicate with someone else, handwriting, graphology, psychology, human
interaction and therapy.
The space was a comfortable environment to be in.
One of the bad factors of this exhibition was that the lights were not bright enough in my opinion.
The pages were rather yellow toned, preferred it if it was slightly brighter.
This exhibition begins with “Insomnia Drawings” 1994-95,
drawing Bourgeois made at night during an eight month period of insomnia, the
inability to sleep.
She explained that “ drawings allow me to pinpoint and
define my anxiety”, she drew to deflect the anxieties that were preventing her
from sleeping.
It to me also shows a development in drawing, seeing into
her mind, see what she sees or feels.
Some are related to one another and some drawings stand
alone.
On this bottom floor, there were 220 drawings
displayed.
Some people who went to see the exhibition took their time to view each individual one for a short period of time, some sat on the benches and viewed from a far, some followed the line and glanced at them all briefly, this was because most of the artwork were rather similar to one another.
Bourgeois used biros and felt-tip pens, pencils, ink and watercolors,
and sometimes charcoal, gouache, wax crayons or chalk.
The paper she had to hand included musical manuscript paper,
lined and colored paper.
During Bourgeois midlife, she was visiting a psychoanalyst
in a regular basis
In her writing she addresses desires and failures,
depressive states, longstanding anxieties and the fallout from everyday experiences such as
a frustrated attempt to share a bed with her husband, and her longer
term rivalry with a fellow sculpture Louise Nevelson.
These for example are showing that there are developments happening as she draws.
Drawings are a practice in which she sought refuge during
periods of mental stress
This was a text/poem that she wrote? It wasn't on display but was in the many books of hers that they displayed in the gallery
It makes you wonder about all the doodles you've done in life. Are they worth keeping?
What do your drawings say about you?
Upstairs Level
You could really see the emotional state she was in because
she wrote next to her drawings. Short but effective statements.
I enjoyed the upper level a lot more because there were more text written by her next to her drawings.
She uses a range of writing techniques, theres some where she writes all in capitals and others not.
She writes big, some lazier than others.
Some of her drawings on the upper level were a little morbid
Upstairs level was slightly better, the lights were brighter and whiter which clarified the pieces of artwork. Very spacious and comfortable to walk around in.
When she writes a question like this, after seeing all the drawings downstairs and upstairs, you have like a flashback of all the pieces and guessing what she might mean?
Could you absorb all of someone's information, emotions and feel them yourself? put yourself in their shoes and relate in a much more deeper level?
This was a great visit, if you're in Edinburgh, go have a look. Ends 23 February 2014
