FANTASTIC AND STRANGE ANALYSIS PAGE
LOUISE BOURGEOIS CONTEXT
Louise Bourgeois, a French sculptor and photographer, was born on the 25th of December 1911 in Paris. Louise uses fabric dolls, with the majority having female features, as her theme of her photography. It was said that Louise was very close to her mother, Josephine, which is why she gained some mental scarring from her father’s infidelity from that it was said that the infidelity kick started the topic of her work in her early years. Louise belonged to the ‘second generation surrealism’ art movement, at the time Louise’s focus and expression of the more sexual side to things where seen as rare within the female artists. When Bourgeois was about 50-60 years old she held something called a ‘Sunday Salon’ where she would invite younger, aspiring artists to her apartment and share her constructive criticism with them in order to better their chances to make it big in the future. In 1930s, in France, the major crisis called ‘the Great Depression’ had just bloomed the 1930s was when Louise was around 20 years, having to have lived through the great depression may have been another factor that contributes to the way Bourgeois work had come across.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS ANALYSIS
What can I see?
This is a portrait, surreal photo of a human shape with pink fabric all over. The human-like figurine has enlarged female features. The breasts and bum are over exaggerated which would give the viewer an instant thought that it’s a woman, not only that, the stomach is slightly enhanced which could be taken in two ways; the fabric doll is made with the features of a natural female in order to show society the perception that all women should be skinny isn’t very true or that the stomach shows the figurine is a woman in the early months of pregnancy. The background of the photo is a plain black and the doll is in floating the centre of the photo, slightly tilted to the viewers left, however the viewer is still getting definition on the fabric stiches shared all around the doll.
Feelings and Mood
This piece reminds me of surgery, the stich lines around the doll really stand out to me as it supplies definition and depth to the photo. It makes me feel like there is a deeper meaning to the photo rather than just a doll with stich lines, my first idea for the meaning would be about women who take on heavy surgery to enhance their features just to look a certain way. I like the fact that the doll is floating rather than in a scene it brings attention straight to the doll, and straight to thinking about the deeper message. What makes it interesting is the visual simplicity which is why I chose this piece, the fact that it seems so simple normally means there is more in between the lines.
Composition
The focal point of the photo undoubtedly would be the figurine, two reasons; the doll is the only object in the photo and the high colour of the fabric drags the viewer’s eyes straight to the doll in addition to the black background bringing out the doll even more. The balance of the photo is more asymmetrical because the doll isn’t symmetrical and it’s the only object on the page, there is not collage of photos and the doll isn’t even looking directly towards the camera. The first, second and third look all were at the doll. 1st look was at the enlarged stomach, the 2nd look was at the breasts and 3rd look was at the whole of the doll, like the stance and detail of the dolls fabric in general.
Colour and Mood
They only two colours that I have really seen in this piece is pink, which is the colour of the doll, and black, which is the colour of the background. The colour of the doll gives off the stereo typical thought that it’s a female doll in addition to the female body parts. As well as that the pink is also the dominant colour, I think Louise used this to emphasise the deeper female related message in between the lines of the photo. The pink used is like an off pink, it isn’t very bright and vibrant, it’s more of a used pink.
Light and Tone
The light seems to be coming from beneath the doll as it shines on the rear then through the legs upon the stomach to the boobs, leaving dark shadows on the legs and several different parts of the upper body especially the back of the head. The light brings more emphasises to the more important parts of the body, for example the boobs, one of the most feminine parts of the doll. The darker shadows bring a more negative vibe to the piece.
Texture and Pattern
The photo is smooth and clean cut, until you look at the doll in full detail, the stiches make the photo more jagged and edgy as the doll isn’t finely polished. There are several loose threads as if the doll hadn’t been tailored to perfection, and literally just been under some sort of doll surgery and left to recover with no healing material.
What I have learnt?
I have noticed that Louise uses her lighting well, I would like to experiment with lighting to make my work pieces more diverse. Also I like how she put a different meaning to her pieces that leaves you wondering, as well as the sewing detail in the pieces is very intriguing that makes me want to incorporate it into my work.
This is a portrait, surreal photo of a human shape with pink fabric all over. The human-like figurine has enlarged female features. The breasts and bum are over exaggerated which would give the viewer an instant thought that it’s a woman, not only that, the stomach is slightly enhanced which could be taken in two ways; the fabric doll is made with the features of a natural female in order to show society the perception that all women should be skinny isn’t very true or that the stomach shows the figurine is a woman in the early months of pregnancy. The background of the photo is a plain black and the doll is in floating the centre of the photo, slightly tilted to the viewers left, however the viewer is still getting definition on the fabric stiches shared all around the doll.
Feelings and Mood
This piece reminds me of surgery, the stich lines around the doll really stand out to me as it supplies definition and depth to the photo. It makes me feel like there is a deeper meaning to the photo rather than just a doll with stich lines, my first idea for the meaning would be about women who take on heavy surgery to enhance their features just to look a certain way. I like the fact that the doll is floating rather than in a scene it brings attention straight to the doll, and straight to thinking about the deeper message. What makes it interesting is the visual simplicity which is why I chose this piece, the fact that it seems so simple normally means there is more in between the lines.
Composition
The focal point of the photo undoubtedly would be the figurine, two reasons; the doll is the only object in the photo and the high colour of the fabric drags the viewer’s eyes straight to the doll in addition to the black background bringing out the doll even more. The balance of the photo is more asymmetrical because the doll isn’t symmetrical and it’s the only object on the page, there is not collage of photos and the doll isn’t even looking directly towards the camera. The first, second and third look all were at the doll. 1st look was at the enlarged stomach, the 2nd look was at the breasts and 3rd look was at the whole of the doll, like the stance and detail of the dolls fabric in general.
Colour and Mood
They only two colours that I have really seen in this piece is pink, which is the colour of the doll, and black, which is the colour of the background. The colour of the doll gives off the stereo typical thought that it’s a female doll in addition to the female body parts. As well as that the pink is also the dominant colour, I think Louise used this to emphasise the deeper female related message in between the lines of the photo. The pink used is like an off pink, it isn’t very bright and vibrant, it’s more of a used pink.
Light and Tone
The light seems to be coming from beneath the doll as it shines on the rear then through the legs upon the stomach to the boobs, leaving dark shadows on the legs and several different parts of the upper body especially the back of the head. The light brings more emphasises to the more important parts of the body, for example the boobs, one of the most feminine parts of the doll. The darker shadows bring a more negative vibe to the piece.
Texture and Pattern
The photo is smooth and clean cut, until you look at the doll in full detail, the stiches make the photo more jagged and edgy as the doll isn’t finely polished. There are several loose threads as if the doll hadn’t been tailored to perfection, and literally just been under some sort of doll surgery and left to recover with no healing material.
What I have learnt?
I have noticed that Louise uses her lighting well, I would like to experiment with lighting to make my work pieces more diverse. Also I like how she put a different meaning to her pieces that leaves you wondering, as well as the sewing detail in the pieces is very intriguing that makes me want to incorporate it into my work.
Fantastic and Strange Project
What did I do?
Firstly I created a 1m x 1m frame and added plastic to the back of it. Afterwards I pained the frame red to insinuate the idea of blood dripping from the dolls bodies. Then, I ripped plastic shopping bags, tied them together and melted the joined bags with an iron. I went onto stretching the melted shopping bags across the painted frame then stapled them into place. I used minimal red paint to paint in the gaps of the melted plastic bags onto the plastic background. I ended up with a plastic covered frame which I then stuck dismantled and disfigured Barbie dolls to. I printed out my developments in A6 size and ripped the edges so that when I stick them to the frame it doesn’t look so neat and clean. Once I stuck my ripped developments to my busy frame, I applied super glue to the dolls bodies as a mould for dripping blood which I then went to paint red as if the dolls were actually bleeding.
Why did I do it?
I did this big piece in hopes to create an imitation ‘Voodoo Doll Altar’. My artist, Louise Bourgeois, takes pictures of dolls who are made of a certain wool material, I decided to interpret this in my own way by taking the dolls apart and emphasize the more sinister and crude side to dolls. I also wanted to show the correlation between my photos and the dismantled dolls as they are what I took pictures of.
Was it successful?
I think my big piece was successful in regards to the messy, edgy side of it. I think my work was seen as interesting and abstract as there is a lot going on in my piece. In regards to my piece showing off the voodoo side, I think I could have added more religious aspects to it, to show the voodoo essence.
What did I learn?
I learnt how to melt plastic together to blend into a background. I also learnt how to include 3D aspects into my photography work to gain higher marks and to add some uniqueness into my work. I learnt about the deeper meaning to my artists work in regards to feminism. Not only this I learnt how to incorporate and merge more clean and pretty objects with a dark and twisted theme.
What did I do?
Firstly I created a 1m x 1m frame and added plastic to the back of it. Afterwards I pained the frame red to insinuate the idea of blood dripping from the dolls bodies. Then, I ripped plastic shopping bags, tied them together and melted the joined bags with an iron. I went onto stretching the melted shopping bags across the painted frame then stapled them into place. I used minimal red paint to paint in the gaps of the melted plastic bags onto the plastic background. I ended up with a plastic covered frame which I then stuck dismantled and disfigured Barbie dolls to. I printed out my developments in A6 size and ripped the edges so that when I stick them to the frame it doesn’t look so neat and clean. Once I stuck my ripped developments to my busy frame, I applied super glue to the dolls bodies as a mould for dripping blood which I then went to paint red as if the dolls were actually bleeding.
Why did I do it?
I did this big piece in hopes to create an imitation ‘Voodoo Doll Altar’. My artist, Louise Bourgeois, takes pictures of dolls who are made of a certain wool material, I decided to interpret this in my own way by taking the dolls apart and emphasize the more sinister and crude side to dolls. I also wanted to show the correlation between my photos and the dismantled dolls as they are what I took pictures of.
Was it successful?
I think my big piece was successful in regards to the messy, edgy side of it. I think my work was seen as interesting and abstract as there is a lot going on in my piece. In regards to my piece showing off the voodoo side, I think I could have added more religious aspects to it, to show the voodoo essence.
What did I learn?
I learnt how to melt plastic together to blend into a background. I also learnt how to include 3D aspects into my photography work to gain higher marks and to add some uniqueness into my work. I learnt about the deeper meaning to my artists work in regards to feminism. Not only this I learnt how to incorporate and merge more clean and pretty objects with a dark and twisted theme.