I greeted in the new year with a picnic in the gardens at Heidi Museum of Modern Art. There is an exhibition of Louise Bourgeoise’s late works together with some Australian contemporary works by the likes of Kathryn Del Barton.
Louise Bourgeoise’s art is much more feminine than I imagined it would be. From artbooks I had pictured a fierce dogmatic feminist harshness to her work. Instead in the needle-point and stitching I sensed a softness and a vulnerability that made the works more creepybeautiful and more real. The delicacy of the materials and the work is contrasted by the phallic, dirty, sexy, excremental subect matter. The soft toys have dangerous blades, mixers, and vaginas. The massive spider has faded posters of advertisements for domestic products, flowers, patterns, and a cage inside.
It reminds me that while binaries are useful tools they are boring and reductive. Life is much more interesting in the messy, random, dangerous fleshy bits, and creating stuff which inspires people is one of the most amazing things a person can dedicate a life to. Something I need to focus on.
The Louise Bourgeoise Late Works exhibition is on at Heidi Museum of Modern Art until 11 March 2013.