Spiderwoman

So my first real post has to be about the beatiful Louise Bourgeois, one of my favourite sculptors, who passed just yesterday. This woman has helped shape and define my taste for art and has inspired many of today's 'confessional artists' such as Hirst and Emin.

I remember seeing a photograph of the 35-ft tall spider which was displayed in the Tate Modern in 2000, and trying to understand what Bourgeois was trying to say. This massive creature, maman (mother in French) towers over people walking by, its spindling legs piercing the ground. Its title suggests that the mother is dictating, frightening, overpowering and controlling. She also seems sinister - those jagged and twisted legs extend from a black cocoon, woven with evil and death, and ready to torture.

But I love spiders. Of this piece, Bourgeois said "Spiders are friendly presences... spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother." And just like that, the spider takes on a new meaning - it is guarding, wise, motherly.

I don't think there has been an artist so honest and yet so powerful in the way that she forces such an uncomfortable degree of emotional involvement from viewer.

Rest in peace.