Went to the Louise Bourgeois show at the AGNSW today and I was blown away by it. Mostly the way the show was curated made a big impact on the night and day aspect of the presentation and how I received it. The day was in the white cube setting of the gallery and the night was in the darkness of the underground Second World War fuel tank down below.

The way Bourgeois’ work relies on subtle detail and also less than subtle objects that confront the viewer in their tactility are beautiful but almost abhorrent. Some of her drawings are mimicking blood and gore as well as beauty and the way life is both at the same time. The body is at once a place of love and violence, it is a contradiction in that it is fragile yet as she says of sculpture, resists the artist’s hand.

Her writing is very telling and she incorporated writing so well in her work, she created her vision and understanding in everything she touched. When I first went to art school Bourgeois was a seminal figure in art and I may have seen a small handful of works by her in the flesh but mostly through reproduction and articles. She was lauded and this exhibition shows why, her technical skill and ability to conjure desire, mortality and both love and repulsion is unnerving.