Femme Maison 1994

Louise Bourgeois made this sculpture called Femme Maison, with marble. The cool touch of the smooth marble really grabs you, doesn’t it? It is the coolness of a domestic space, maybe a kitchen, maybe the marital bed… I like how solid the house is compared to the softness of the woman’s body. The pale body appears to be both emerging from and trapped inside the house. The house itself is very simplified; it has almost no features and is very geometric, a far cry from the expressive, organic curves of the human body. I keep thinking of her giant spider sculptures, where domesticity is represented in an eerie way. This Femme Maison is a bit like the spider's web, where the woman becomes both the weaver and the prey, stuck in a structure she created. It reminds me of a quote by Philip Guston, who once said, “I got sick and tired of all that purity… wanted to tell stories.” Bourgeois certainly does that here!