LOUISE

At the beginning of the summer I was searching for

ways to express my ideas for Hansel and Gretel. I kept returning to images by Louise Bourgeois: the small enclosures, the cells, the rooms surrounded by fence. I began to imagine a small set, sort of like a puppet theater, that the two actors could manipulate themselves and alter as the story unfolded. Sometimes it might be like a house and sometimes it might be like a cage. Maybe there would be arms that extended from it with mirrors, with lights.

Last night I watched the Louise documentary The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine, picked up randomly at Movie Madness when I was returning the Valentino documentary. Although I wouldn’t call it a great film, it was wonderful to see her work and to listen to her discuss it, and there were some great scenes – notably a description of the titular tangerine, shots of the spider sculptures set to Laurie Anderson and Louise in a hot pink fur coat and a sparkly baseball cap.

The Candy House of the witch, perhaps?

I was most struck by how the narrative of her work fit with my intended use of her imagery. I was unfamiliar with her biography. Overarching themes of abandonment, of physical pain, betrayal, destruction of the parental figures, seclusion… I believe it is meant to be.