Best known for sculptures of giant
spiders, Bourgeois experimented in many mediums, including holograms, a number
of which are presented here.
Cheim & Read is pleased to
present Louise Bourgeois: Holograms, the first exhibition devoted exclusively
to this little-known aspect of the artist’s long, groundbreaking career.
In 1998 Bourgeois was approached by
C-Project, a New York-based fine arts holographic studio (the C stands for the
speed of light) dedicated to exploring the creative potential of
three-dimensional photographs through the talents of top-flight painters and
sculptors. The plates from Bourgeois’ resulting suite of eight holograms will
be on display at the gallery from January 5 to February 11, 2017.
The dream imagery conjured by Bourgeois
for this new art form is in keeping with the probing psychodynamics of her
widely admired sculptures, drawings, and prints, but the intimate confines of
the hologram seem to have tapped into a particular strain of theatrical
freedom. Within these self-contained universes, each measuring approximately 11
x 14 inches, she pieced together a cast of motley, emotionally resonate
entities—miniature chairs, a bell jar, a pair of lovers (indicated by
disembodied feet on a doll-house-size bed)—that combine the incipient dread and
satirical playfulness that marks much of her work.
The holographic image is created by
laser beams that record the light field reflected from an object, burning it
onto a plate of glass. The image is scaled at a one-to-one correspondence with
the original material, so that peering at these works conveys the sensation of
looking at an actual assemblage by Bourgeois, but at an eerie remove.
One of the most striking aspects of
these works is their color, a saturated red that recalls the illumination of an
old-fashioned darkroom. While it fits the content perfectly, Bourgeois’ use of
this shade of red is actually the result of a materials-based decision.
Holograms are glass plates that appear black until they come to life when
struck by light at a particular angle. Depending on the way the glass plate is
originally encoded, the hologram will have a base color of red or blue. The
master plates for Bourgeois’ editions are red, and it was her intention not to
tamper with the purity of the diffracted light carrying the image to the
viewer’s eye. The dazzling clarity inherent to the process, which allows for
close scrutiny of such details as the threads dangling from the bottoms of
chairs and the light reflected off the surface of the bell jar, elicits both
childlike wonderment and a Beckettian sense of slapstick horror.
Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris
in 1911 and lived in New York from 1938 until her death in 2010. She was named
Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture in
1983. Other honors included the Grand Prix National de Sculpture from the
French government in 1991; the National Medal of Arts, presented to her by
President Bill Clinton in 1997; the first lifetime achievement award from the
International Sculpture Center in Washington D.C.; and election as a fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1993 she was chosen to represent
the United States at the Venice Biennale. Her work appears in the most
important museum collections worldwide and has been the subject of several
major traveling retrospectives organized by the Tate Modern, London; Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Brooklyn Museum; and The Kunstverein, Frankfurt.
Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1998
Photograph: Courtesy Cheim &
Read
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