How Louise Bourgeois Confronts the Past through Sculpture | Art21

<v ->So it is the making of a hairpin.</v>

You see, the hairpin is indispensable,

and I never have any.

Very good.

So, we are almost ready, hmm?

Okay.

(gentle piano music)

So in the sculpture for Chicago, then,

this is a silent world.

This is a silent world.

All these things are going to go

around the high building in a garden.

And instead of trying to rival

with the height of the building,

I have made a sculpture

which is so discreet and so sensitive

that my sculpture doesn't 
have a bone of contention

with the building.

The beauty of it is that the block of black stone

is one with this.

So that is quite something.

Now, this is lost on a lot of people.

They don't know how beautiful it is.

They don't have to know.

What I'm concerned with this 
here is vandalism, right?

You see how fragile it is.

I'm not going to give you ideas now,

but just a knock on this, and the thing is...

So, it is a leap of faith to 
put this in an open space,

but I take a chance.

<v Interviewer>how come some 
hands are child hands

and some are adults?

<v ->The subject of autobiography.</v>

Autobiographique.

It is the helplessness of a child

and then here is the help

that the grownup can give a small child.

One takes care of the other.

The whole thing means we are together

and we are not arrogant,

we are not ashamed of our helplessness.

In fact, the helplessness may be a charm.

Though I doubt that, but I can think that.

I can say that.

I doubt it, but maybe I 
don't doubt it, I don't know.

Helplessness can be a charm.

It makes you feel good to help somebody helpless,

even though it's arrogant to say that.

They're all based on the same subject.

And there is a multiplicity of reasons.

Things are not black and white,

they are very subtle, there are lots of grays.

So, the main different thing,

first of all the fact that they are black

is not a hazard, it is wanted.

They are wanted black.

Which is black is beautiful.

It is an invitation.

It is an invitation to be friendly.

(gentle piano music)

I'm supposed to come here, huh?

The wrists, you see the beauty of this?

So instead of having a blouse,

you see, you have those things.

Ah, thank you.

Okay.

So, it is just nice.

Right.

And this is also crochet.

It's a matter of...

It is a matter of craftsmanship.

So this dovetail exactly into the Chicago project.

I don't want to talk about Jane Addams,

because she's a historical figure, and it is,

you just open a book and know what she represents.

Her attitude was very moral and very wonderful.

She provided women who came over with work.

And since their fathers were 
not around in many cases,

she made women useful.

She made them into wage-earners.

v<Interviewer>Wasn't your 
grandmother a lace maker?

<v Louise>There was a lot of 
tapestry making in my family,

and there was also lace making.

I talk a lot about needles,

but I never sat at a loom, never.

In her feminist attitude, my 
mother was virulent about that.

She said, "You, my daughter, 
will never handle a needle.

Women are not supposed to be only craftswomen.

they are supposed to have a career."

<v Interviewer>What was your father's idea?</v>

Did he think you would sit down-

<v ->My father's idea was that I get married</v>

and be a good wife, and be off of his hands.

(bouncy piano music)

You see the little hands 
inside, they are my hands,

as you can see by the size.

And his hands, then...

<v Assistant>My hands are over Louise's hands.</v>

Louise's hands are like this.

<v ->So this is where it came from.</v>

And the technique of it is interesting,

because first a cast was made.

We have a bed of plaster.

Then Jerry pushed my hands in the wet plaster,

and then we wait until the plaster is dry,

the negative part, is dry.

And then we put some shellac on it.

May I turn it, because he's there.

This is my (indistinct).

So we have half of it covered with the shellac.

It is dry.

At this point we put another, 
we pour the plaster on top.

Now when I say that the original plaster

is my favorite things, come, you see here?

You see the hand here?

And you see all the folds. You see the folds?

All the wrinkles, everything is there.

So this is the real document. That's it.

So it is really our hands.

Because it shows how much I 
care about the whole thing.

It shows how much the emotion 
that this expresses is true.

It's an emotion that has 
been lived and that is real;

it's not something made up.

So in this case, sometimes it's swing, you see.

I swing from being vulnerable, the baby one,

and in some other cases, I am the guiding one.

So you swing from being a child,

into being a grandmother, to Alexander.

So there is a long swing,

there is a whole lifetime of experience,

of attempted experiences.

Some people never grow up, 
but the attempt is there.

<v Interviewer>do you notice that artists</v>

always remain children?

<v ->Oh, well, I don't have 
to implicate myself,

I mean, it's not necessary.

But it might be true that the artist,

there is something in them that either refuses,

or is unable to grow up, this is possible.

(gentle piano music)

A work of art doesn't have to be explained.

If you say, what does this mean, you see?

Well, if you do not have any feeling about this,

I cannot explain it to you.

If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.