Harmless Woman 1969

This is Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Harmless Woman’, made from bronze, a bit like a doll or a totem. Look how the artist has allowed the material to speak. The surface undulates, a mass of lumps and bumps, suggesting how artmaking can be a dialogue between the artist and her chosen material. Bourgeois’ fingerprints seem all over this sculpture, like she's squeezed and coaxed the bronze into existence, and this physicality is crucial, shaping our experience of the piece. There is a hole where the head should be, which might represent an absence. But then, the form rises up so the sculpture is also very present. It reminds me of some of the early bronzes of Giacometti, though Bourgeois is more interested in the interior, psychological landscape. Ultimately, the power of art lies in its ambiguity, allowing for multiple readings.