There’s no escaping the fairy tale in popular culture; a woman trapped under duress, awaiting for a man to rescue her. It’s an archetype that transcends time and continent, but whether it’s approach to gender roles is outdated is an entirely different question. Louise Bourgeois was fascinated with this concept, due to her parents tumultuous relationship and the trauma surrounding identity that pursued her throughout her life. One of the pieces that highlighted the existence of gender roles in Bourgeois' life was her “She’s Lost It” piece in 1992. A fable written by Bourgeois herself was printed upon a gigantic scarf, 543.56 meters long, and wrapped around a large gallery space with a ball and chain labeled “fear” placed in the centre of the
…show more content…
I hope to demonstrate the toxicity apparent in gender roles that have caused Bourgeois and so many others to fear them.
The prose at the core of Louise Bourgeois’ piece details the fable she wrote, one that mimics her own parents’ relationship.“Bourgeois has often remarked that, in order to exorcise the painful memories of her past, it is necessary for her to reconstruct them in order to destroy them,” (Frances Morris (Louise Bourgeois), page 266, 2008) was noted by curator Brooke Hodge, and this can be found at the thematic heart of “She’s Lost It.” As a child, Bourgeois witnessed her father having an affair with her own tutor, and her mothers silence surrounding it. In France, where Bourgeois grew up, it was against custom for a man to leave his wife, so while her home life was stable, it was riddled with mistrust of those that Bourgeois was meant to love the most. To speak about this deep unhappiness as a child was taboo, but as Bourgeois aged and created, she would utilize it, saying that “Art is the experience, the re-experience of trauma”. As Donald Kuspit, an art critic, summarizes; “Bourgeois repairs and sanctifies the members of her close-knit family- mother, father, husband, children- whom she has damaged and profaned with her bad feelings” (Frances Morris (Louise Bourgeois), page 299, 2008). Bourgeois’ ability to recreate her painful childhood leads her to the ability to make deeply emotional art. In “She’s Lost It,” decades since the initial trauma, Bourgeois looks at the gender roles her parents were trapped in, strong husband and devoted wife, and finds a way to deconstruct them to show the traumata she
I hope to demonstrate the toxicity apparent in gender roles that have caused Bourgeois and so many others to fear them.
The prose at the core of Louise Bourgeois’ piece details the fable she wrote, one that mimics her own parents’ relationship.“Bourgeois has often remarked that, in order to exorcise the painful memories of her past, it is necessary for her to reconstruct them in order to destroy them,” (Frances Morris (Louise Bourgeois), page 266, 2008) was noted by curator Brooke Hodge, and this can be found at the thematic heart of “She’s Lost It.” As a child, Bourgeois witnessed her father having an affair with her own tutor, and her mothers silence surrounding it. In France, where Bourgeois grew up, it was against custom for a man to leave his wife, so while her home life was stable, it was riddled with mistrust of those that Bourgeois was meant to love the most. To speak about this deep unhappiness as a child was taboo, but as Bourgeois aged and created, she would utilize it, saying that “Art is the experience, the re-experience of trauma”. As Donald Kuspit, an art critic, summarizes; “Bourgeois repairs and sanctifies the members of her close-knit family- mother, father, husband, children- whom she has damaged and profaned with her bad feelings” (Frances Morris (Louise Bourgeois), page 299, 2008). Bourgeois’ ability to recreate her painful childhood leads her to the ability to make deeply emotional art. In “She’s Lost It,” decades since the initial trauma, Bourgeois looks at the gender roles her parents were trapped in, strong husband and devoted wife, and finds a way to deconstruct them to show the traumata she