The most arresting piece of the exhibit is the aptly titled Spider dating from 1996. This enormous bronze sculpture fills an entire room at the ICA. Upon entering the room, my first impression was repulsion: a giant spider looming more than ten feet above my head, with spindly misshaped bronze legs. As I walked into the room and though the sculpture, I arrived directly underneath the strange body and different emotions began to stir. The legs of the spider began to resonate with a hand and I felt comforted, as if I were in a cocoon or a womb. Bourgeois has made a series of these spider sculptures, and some are titled Maman, the French word for mother, and this seems appropriate.
One other piece stayed with me, long after I had left the museum. The sculpture looks like a bowl, or an egg that had been split in half. One half of the egg shape remains intact, while the other half erupts into a series of rounded, finger-like protrusions. The sculpture has an intriguing
sensual and tactile quality, and had it not been protected, I have no doubt I would have touched it. The title is Germinal, which seems appropriate, given the growth-like quality of the protrusions. The small sculpture references sex, itself a process of growth. The piece is dated 1967-92.
The other pieces in the exhibit were also powerful, but these two stood out the most. Bourgeois in Boston is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art until March 2, 2008. For more information about the exhibit, please visit www.icaboston.org.
1 comment:
Wow! I loved both of the pieces in Boston. But most of all I loved your writing! Bradley, your writing has improved to the point that you should start to write a book! Can you guess who this is? xoxoxo
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