St. Sebastien 2002

Curator: Louise Bourgeois' sculpture, "St. Sebastien," from 2002, is quite a striking piece. Editor: It’s undeniably unnerving. The vulnerability is almost palpable – that fleshy, pink figure pierced with arrows... It brings to mind a raw exposure. Curator: Bourgeois often engaged with ideas of pain and trauma. Looking at the materials—the soft, yielding form contrasting with the cold, metallic arrows—speaks volumes about the violence inflicted upon bodies and, metaphorically, the psyche. Editor: Absolutely. It is an assemblage—a constructed reality that forces us to think about the labor, not just in representing Saint Sebastian, but also in physically making and putting it together. The base, the figure, the punctures, each is a stage of production we need to acknowledge to have this image in front of us. Curator: Precisely! Saint Sebastian, historically depicted as a beautiful, almost serene, martyr is here abstracted, made disturbingly corporeal. Bourgeois disrupts that passive, victimized narrative. Instead, the sculpture exudes a complicated agency, perhaps a scream against suffering. What is this nude representing about a society that profits and finds pleasure in inflicting harm and precarity on living things? Editor: The rough, stitched texture contributes to that unease, as if we are confronted with something unfinished, still under construction, almost like an incomplete processing of personal history made visible. It denies us the polish of idealized suffering and it invites discussion around where pleasure comes from. It disrupts consumption too because it reveals its method. Curator: Indeed. This speaks to her broader practice where themes of childhood trauma, sexuality, and the female experience are consistently dissected. It almost reframes traditional narratives. This artwork makes no pretense of representing, instead is performing an image as itself—an entity constructed and performed as itself. Editor: I’m left thinking about the social structures and economic conditions that dictate our relationships with labor, consumption, and pain—as if the history of the studio meets the globalized realities that underpin production in the 21st century. Curator: An unforgettable reminder of the material weight and emotional impact woven into our existence. Editor: Absolutely. The sculpture stays with you—the uncomfortable feeling persists, challenging easy interpretations, and forcing reflection about materials in contemporary sculpture and also about the state of things, more broadly.