In the final 20 years of her life, Louise Bourgeois began incorporating fabric into her sculptures and installations.
These fabric works mirrored the trademark themes that permeated the course of her career: home, trauma, sexuality, memory, the body, death and femininity.
© The Easton Foundation/DACS, London and VAGA at Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: Mark Blower/© The Hayward Gallery
A familiar approach to abstraction and figurative shapes incorporates fabric and textiles such as bed linen, handkerchiefs and needlepoint: “I have always had a fascination with the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair the damage. It’s a claim to forgiveness.”
The Woven Child is the first major retrospective to focus on this compelling final chapter of Bourgeois’ inventive and exploratory career.
The exhibition is open until May 15 at London’s Southbank Hayward Gallery. Tickets and information can be found here.
