research on drawing practice
I first encountered Bourgeois in 1986 and her work struck a fear in me. It was her way of speaking the unsayable and finding a language for pain, but juxtaposed to that pain and unapologetic at a time when subjects she was addressing were taboo in a wider cultural sense. I found it very uncomfortable to look at and although my work at the time, mostly through etchings were of headless nymphs and snakelike tree creatures her sculptures left me feeling very upset and fearful. Within my art practice as a younger woman, these works were always there but I never felt I could approach any where near them so kept a distance.
I recently looked at her body of drawing and note taking from her posthumously published insomnia drawings. Upon finding these works, I felt a strong connection so decided to drill down into the strong feelings that Bourgeois work ignites in me.
Her insomnia work which was not supposed to be seen or published, Bourgeois is tapping into a portal that opens during these in-between times of insomnia. As sufferer myself I found it to be a time when you can have intimacy with your memories and thoughts that you cannot always access when others, especially those close to you, are alert and conscious. I have found, this is not a subconscious thought process, more of an automatic one when your thoughts and memories are fluid and connected like at no other time of the day or night. Frances Morris acknowledges this in the book’s introduction and I paraphrase her words, that women have a special association to this time as there can be no domestic activity, children are asleep and no other duty calls. Morris points out that Bourgeois ‘cautioned herself not to underestimate listing of/associations and verbal associations of meaning’ (Morris, 2013, p.19). Like Bourgeois I can tap into this rich vein of thought, revealing the past in a raw and intimate way that cannot easily happen at any other time. With the cloak of darkness and the relaxing of the conscious slipping into a world of other allows access to more difficult areas in ones memory. Shown below are three drawings that I found closely matched her ritual, returning theme and motifs that I have recognised throughout her work.
Fig, 1, 2 and 3 respectively page numbers from the catalogue and reference the catalogue
Themes return and my work has not essentially changed in theme since childhood. In returning to this interrupted work two years ago I started my timeline pieces to put these thoughts, themes and rituals into some sort of place in my practice. The timeline pieces are a recall of my life, criss-crossed with others lives they are a marker, a story, a history and a remembrance of time, journey and place. Some are nocturnal notes, like Bourgeois drawings and some worked into more conceptual drawings like the lowest drawing here in this set.
Fig 4 Details of drawing practice (Culverhouse, T 2019)
The long interruption to my practice has meant that I have not made these drawings into definitive finished artwork pieces, but does this keep them in the subjective? So to reflect, I think it makes them markers ready to be made, so far displaced but waiting for the birthing moment, for the rite of passage, much like Bourgeois nocturnal thoughts were delivered though another portal into another medium, I feel mine are on a similar threshold. As my research continues it will be interesting to see if they emerge like Bourgeois into other mediums and dimensions.
Morris, F. & Larratt-Smith, P. (2013) Insomnia in the work of Louise Bourgeois: published for the event of the exhibition at Edinburgh Fruitmarket Gallery from 26 October 2013 – 23 February 2014. Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery
Fig 1 Bourgeois, L., Morris, F., Larratt-Smith, P. & Fruit Market Gallery 2013, Insomnia in the work of Louise Bourgeois: has the day invaded the night or the night invaded the day? Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Fig 2 Bourgeois, L., Morris, F., Larratt-Smith, P. & Fruit Market Gallery 2013, Insomnia in the work of Louise Bourgeois: has the day invaded the night or the night invaded the day? Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Fig 3 Bourgeois, L., Morris, F., Larratt-Smith, P. & Fruit Market Gallery 2013, Insomnia in the work of Louise Bourgeois: has the day invaded the night or the night invaded the day? Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Fig 4 Culverhouse, T. (2019) Details of Drawing practice.
Tina Culverhouse 