Femme Maison 2001

Louise Bourgeois created this ‘Femme Maison,’ or ‘Woman House,’ which has a kind of pale, fleshy tone, and a velvety texture, like something soft, like wool. I’m thinking about Louise Bourgeois in her studio. What was she thinking? This is a sculpture, so it's not paint. The house sits awkwardly on top of this body – it’s like one thing is not quite part of the other. The house is the mind, maybe, and the body is something else? A mystery? It reminds me a bit of Philip Guston, how he turned inside himself and started making these, like, clunky, symbolic shapes – only he did it with paint! Anyway, back to Louise. Her house is like a blank, impassive face, and the body underneath is curvy and soft and lumpy. This work is definitely in conversation with other artists through time. It's about being inside a body and inside a house, and neither one quite fits. I find it moving, but also kind of funny. I can relate!