Picture #1 is an artboard, inspired by the work of Louis Bourgeois (pictures #2 and 3), using materials evocative of themes of betrayal, anxiety, loneliness, fear, vulnerability and control. This board uses her materials in a soothing way, appropriate for use in a public or private interior.
I chose her use of bronze, white paint, paper with rough/torn edges and rough fabrics, french and english words from a printed version of her famous work Merci/Mercy, Pink boiled wool from Saint Sebastienne and bronze from Maman. I chose a worn carpet or tapestry, representing her mother’s profession of tapestry restoration. The use of colder materials next to warmer materials represents of double standards in gender and sexuality as well as Borgeoise's hatred of her father vs her love and admiration for her mother.
I imagined the materials as household items like a hand woven rug and a wool blanket. The wool warms the cool metal, to use tattered and blemished materials to soften, the flawed into something that heals. The tip of flat white paint represents the white paint she often used over wood - as a wash to cover imperfection, to calm anger and release the feeling of captivity. “Merci” and “Mercy” are purposely placed on materials that directly contradict the feelings they evoke as a way to neutralize.
