She once said, "Clothing is an exercise of memory. It makes me explore the past, how did I feel when I wore that..."
Louise and her Mother
She also said...
"I am a prisoner of my memories and my aim is to get rid of them."
Memories. We all have them, some are sharper than others. Don't know about anyone else, but many of my most vivid memories seem to contain episodes of embarrassment or humiliation.
Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911. Her Mother's family had a long history in the tapestry industry. Her Father trained in landscape architecture, eventually becoming a dealer in restored tapestry and antique furniture. He was also a philanderer.
In 1922, a young English woman called Sadie entered the Bourgeois household. Sadie was employed to be a governess for the children, as well as becoming the father's mistress.
Brother, Sadie, Louise and the Father
This arrangement had a profound effect on Bourgeois, and much of her work was stimulated by feelings connected with the memory. I think Sadie left the family in 1932, which was also the year that Louise's mother died.
In 1982 Bourgeois participated in an ArtForum project, which she named 'Child Abuse'. It was the first time she had revealed her family memory in a public manner.
This link will allow you an insight into some of that project. The images are interesting and a good insight into Bourgeois' work.
The year Bourgeois's mother died, is also the year she stopped studying Mathematics at The Sorbonne and took up the study of Art instead.
One of my strong magnets to Bourgeois work, is her use of a needle, thread and fabric.
Bourgeois's connection to fabric and stitching can obviously be related to the tapestry repair business she was exposed to in her childhood home life.
It was in the 1990s that she began to make sculptures out of her clothes. Garments, which she had kept for decades, held memories of the past. The fabric from these garments was manipulated into almost life-size installations. Seamstress Mercedes Katz, was hired to assist with the construction of these works.
She hung old clothing as sculptural installations.
She printed on old handkerchiefs and other fabrics.
And, she constructed books of fabric collages
Ode a l'Oubli...Ode to Forgetting/Forgetfulness. These collages used linens and clothing remnants from her past.
Rozsika Parker, author of 'The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the making of the Feminist', is considered an expert on woman's craft in Art. She suggests Bourgeois's work brings out the deeper meaning of textiles evocation of women, because in her work, fabric is associated directly with female sexuality, the unconscious and the body.
I like how, by using sewn fabric for artistic expression, Bourgeois is connecting with the long association between women and the craft tradition.
I also like when Rei Kawakubo was honored by The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017, Barney's presented wonderful window displays of her designs alongside sculptural pieces by Louise Bourgeois. Dennis Freedman, the curator of the window installations said, "Bourgeois's and Rei's work had very strong parallels aesthetically, psychologically, and emotionally - even though one was an artist and one was a fashion designer and neither one was looking at the other's work in any way for inspiration. The issues they both deal with, which you can ascertain both from looking at the work and from reading interviews with them, surround emotions like loss, separation and confrontation."
That same connection is presented in these images- Bourgeois work. Comme des Garcons work. Connection.
There is a delightful book, which beautifully explores the relationship between Louise and her mother, while also expressing "how memories are woven into us all".
This Guardian link provides a great overview of the book, as does the video.
If you want to know a little bit more about Bourgeois the artist, this video may assist.
The designer Simone Rocha is often influenced by Louise Bourgeois, as seen in her AW 2015 collection. Padded velvet ensembles assembled from undulating forms and the use of tapestry fabrics.
This is Rocha's working uniform for a female artist from history, which was her piece for The New York Times project 'Couture for Artists, Dead & Alive'.
Earrings from Rocha's Autumn 2019 collection. There's no missing it, if you are familiar with LB's work.
This video allows Rocha to share her fascination with Bourgeois, which I totally comprehend.
Wallpaper magazine commits its last page to an artist and a recipe. This is the edition that featured a Bourgeois meal, visually captured in the style of the artist.
I want to come back to the memory connection with clothing, something I think we will all relate to.
This is the poster for an exhibition created by artist, Helen Barff and writer, Suzy Joinson. Together they explored Worthing Museum's clothing collection and linked them with memories and stories from residents in a local care home for the elderly.
What caught my eye to begin with, was this image,
there was something Louise Bourgeois about it, which I liked.
The link will give you a great overview of the concepts, communication and work that went into creating the exhibition, it is so interesting, especially page 2, The Women's Land Army/ Vita Sackville-West connection and how snobby she seemed. I quite believe it.
"Belongings give a sense of belonging. Clothes are spaces we inhabit. They encase us, giving or disrupting physical edges. They help define our identity – our sense of self. When we move from elsewhere we pack our clothes, they give a continuity of self in a new space. Clothes contain memories and also contain us – in that way we inhabit our memories. Memories of absent clothing can take us back to a remembered place or person." (The first paragraph from the above link.)
Leads nicely into 'Worn Stories' by Emily Spivack: Playful and Poignant Tales of Clothes That Encode Life's Most Meaningful Memories
I only got to know of it through this 'brainpickings' link.
Evocative personal histories of clothing, each one a memorable story, none more so than Dorothy Finger's, a Holocaust survivor, with a compelling story about the tenacity of a human being to survive.
And further highly evocative work concerning the memories of clothing, Ishiuchi Miyako's "Hiroshima" photography. Photographs of clothes once worn by some of the thousands of people,who perished in the August 6th, 1946, atomic bomb. Miyako brought the clothes out of storage and photographed them in the light, to trace the spirits of those who once worn them.
"Gently pressing out the creases on a blouse long folded up, I bring it into the light of the sun shining through a window. For an instance, the polka dots and floral patterns shimmer, and the woman who once wore it rises." (Ishiuchi Miyako)
It is quite incredible, but I see something very Comme des Garcons in both of these items of clothing.
If you read the article, you will see that Miyako also saw Comme des Garcons in one of the dresses she photographed.
and I hope this will take you to the trailer for the film 'Things Left Behind', which film maker, Linda Hoaglund made about Miyako's Hiroshima exhibition, when it was held in Vancouver. I suspect the full feature documentary is quite moving.
Another connection with clothing memory, a 'memory of ' t-shirt
When Martin Margiela created his first collection in 1989, the label he sewed into his work was blank. Instead of advertising his company by the use of his name, he left the label blank and 4 diagonal white stitches attached it to the garment.
Only those in fashion's inner circle knew and appreciated Margiela's unorthodox and conceptual signature.
In 2009 Margiela left the fashion world behind. The label, which is now known as 'Maison Margiela', appointed John Galliano as the creative designer in 2014.
Hence the ' memory of ' garments.
When I saw the film 'Martin Margiela: In His Own Words', I did enjoy hearing a fan talk about his plain label with the 4 white stitches, and how people were often telling her she had loose threads on the back of her garment. They just weren't in the know!
This is the trailer for the film, which I thought was a wonderful insight into an astoundingly creative man, who didn't seem to be at all consumed by his own ego.
They took it off the circuit, so I am showing this one, just as good.
Here is one of my clothing memory projects, which I was able to put together during 1st Lockdown.
A blanket and tapestry stitched bag.
The blanket had been a part of my belongings for years. It traveled with me when I left the farm, as did the bag, which my Mother created. Together, they now make a coat of very warm memories.
Another story of memory, maybe one like Emily Spivack's 'Worn Stories'...my wonderful Issey Miyake bag...
I was in the Brook Street, Pleats Please, store...
I immediately spied the bag, it was the effect of the colours, you see. I picked it up, I put it down, I picked it up again. The friendly shop assistant made a comment, like, "It's lovely, isn't it." "Totally", I replied. I studied the price, 50 pounds, equating that cost in NZ $s! I turned to let it go, I was walking out the door...I paused...I thought for a brief second, turned on my heel, and said "It's my birthday soon, this is going to be my present to me" The sale was done and what a happy happy relationship it proved to be. If I had a dollar for everytime I was complimented on that bag, I would have paid it off with interest!
Fabric books, like Borgeois's, are so creative, inspiring and often full of memories.
Like wonderful textile artist, Mandy Pattullo. Her fabulous books are sometimes made from old fabrics. Pattullo says she loves textiles "which show a history of use, and evidence of a previous female needleworker." She works with fabrics that contain memories.
I can see those memories.
Some of Pattullo's fabric books express good messages for 21st C. living.
This is a fabric book with memories from my 1990 'Certificate in Clothing', Christchurch Polytechnic days. I came across it recently and can't bring myself to part with it. Each fabric page is a technique concerning clothes construction, also flowing into so many memories of the life I was living in the '90s.
And another fabric book, one I have wanted to make for absolute years! This blog has given me the impetus to get it done.
What about a slightly different take on fabric books?
'The British Library', a 2014 Yinka Shonibare installation, which was originally commissioned by HOUSE 2014 and Brighton Festival. The Tate Modern acquired the installation in 2019.
It is an installation of 6,328 hardback books individually covered in colourful dutch wax print fabric and arranged on rows of shelving. Names are printed in gold leaf on the spines of 2,700 of the books, the majority being 1st or 2nd generation immigrants to Britain, both celebrated and lesser-known, who have made significant contributions to British culture and history.
Researching fabric books took me to these wonderful 'Sew What Tactile Books'.
They are educational fabric books that evolved out of a SEW WHAT exhibition, which was held at the the Children's Museum of the Arts, New York, in 2016. Various textile artists demonstrated the transformation of fibre, and Louise Bourgeois was one of the artists.
This link takes you to the museum's web page. It contains cool videos for tactile ways young people can connect with the works of art, that were in the exhibition. Wonderful creative education at work.
"All the resources I work with, needle, sewing machine, cloth, thread, paper, pencil,set-square, and what I do with them, I call 'my craft'. Working with my craft is the main way I express myself in life. I write and draw with needle, thread and fabric. It takes times, precision and endurance. I am a 21st Century Needlewoman!"
"The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair."
This blog has been an exploration of the past through an exercise of memory, so how did I feel when I was photographed here?
It still looks like the shoes were really taking my attention, but I no longer know for sure.
Little Hills just didn't seem to want to look at the camera, I wonder why?
