Mother, dear Mother

Keywords:

Motherhood, Art, Feminism, Kristeva, Louise Bourgeois

Available in:

JVAP 3.2 - about JVAP

Funded by:

NAFAE - about NAFAE

Pulished:

September 2004

Article abstract

This is an exploration of the essays ‘Women’s Time’ by Julia Kristeva1 and ‘A Family Affair’ by Frances Morris2 and attempts to provide a reading of the artwork by Louise Bourgeois called I Do, I Undo, I Redo. It draws on the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan for clarification of certain central terms, and includes the insights of other critics to widen the analysis of Bourgeois’ work. In particular this essay will examine Kristeva’s analysis of women and their place within an inquiry on time and her threefold categorization of feminist history. It will deconstruct ‘A Family Affair’, paying particular attention to the towers and their triangular relationship, the spiral staircases, the platforms at the top of the towers, the inside of each of these towers, and it aims to discover whether this monumental installation, I Do, I Undo, I Redo, fulfils Kristeva’s call for an authentic voice to motherhood.

Written by: Sheila de Rosa

Other articles in: JVAP Volume 3 Issue 2, The Journal Of Visual Art Practice