Along came Bourgeois‘s spiders

Bourgeois once explained that she chose the spider as a subject because its traits or characteristics reminded her of her mother. ‘She was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and as useful as a spider.’ Do you agree that these are all qualities of a spider? Would you use them to describe any of Bourgeois’s sculptures? What other words would you use to describe a spider? Is there an animal that reminds you of someone in your life? Write a list of traits that they share. 

 Bourgeois was interested in opposing forces: love and hate, conscious and unconscious, doing and undoing. How do Bourgeois’s spider sculptures represent opposite forces? Think about what the spiders look like, what they’re doing, what they symbolise and how they make you feel. Make a list and compare it to a classmate’s. 

 Bourgeois was also interested in what spiders made. Look at Fée couturière 1963 and The Waiting Hours 2007. Do you see evidence of spider webs? Think of spider webs that you’ve seen. How would you describe their shape? What do you think a web created by one of Bourgeois’s spider sculptures would look like? 

The first spider Bourgeois drew was in a small ink and charcoal drawing in 1947. Select two materials: either ink and charcoal, or paint and pencil. Choose one of Bourgeois’s spider sculptures in this learning resource and create a small drawing of it. Using the two materials, experiment with different lines, smudges and marks to create the legs and body. How does your spider drawing compare to Bourgeois’s sculpture? 

 What species of spider do you think Bourgeois has depicted? Research spiders in Australia or in the area where you live. How do they compare? Using materials from around the classroom, such as paper, cardboard or wire, create a sculpture of a spider that lives near you. Think about its defining features, how it moves and the web it creates. Present your artwork to the class and use your sculpture to describe the qualities of your spider species. 

 Turn your classroom into a spider den! Use found objects, both natural and produced, and build a family of spiders, large and small. Where will these spiders live in your classroom? Will you build a web, or trap spider food? Will some spiders be hard to find? Invite another class to view your spider den and then record their responses. Do you feel differently about spiders after the activity? 

Familiar themes and motifs appear throughout Bourgeois’s art: body parts, the home, family, trauma, spirals and spiders, among others. Why do you think Bourgeois revisited the same forms and ideas throughout her career? What does this process reveal about an artist’s life and approach to art-making? Do you know any other artists who work in this way? Using the example of the spider, think about what each iteration of this motif communicates about the artist’s life. 

 Bourgeois once said that the huge bronze spiders she sculpted had an ‘invading power’. What do you think she meant by this? Think about this quote in relation to a 1995 diary entry by Bourgeois, the title of one of her artworks, as well as the title of the exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales: ‘Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?’ How is the word ‘invaded’ being used?  

 Unlike the sculpture Maman, Crouching Spider 2003 is poised low to the ground as if threatened and ready to attack. Bourgeois wrote: ‘When I do not “attack”, I do not feel myself alive.’ Think about this quote in connection to her spiders. How might an artist ‘attack’? Could Crouching Spider 2003 be a self-portrait? 

 Bourgeois consistently maintained that her work had nothing in common with the surrealists. ‘I have never mentioned the word dream in discussing my art, while [the surrealists] talked about the dream all the time. I don’t dream. You might say I work under a spell,’ she wrote. Do you agree that there are no similarities between Bourgeois’s art and the surrealists? Use one of Bourgeois’s artworks in this resource to make your point. How would you describe the difference between a dream and a spell? 

Like a spider, Bourgeois’s mother was a weaver. Bourgeois grew up in Paris where she worked at her family’s tapestry restoration workshop, run by her mother. ‘The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it,’ Bourgeois wrote. In pairs, create an artwork that incorporates weaving and the idea of reparation. Each person makes a drawing, painting or sculpture of a subject of their choosing, then rips or makes a hole in the work. Swap the damaged artwork with your partner and ‘mend’ it with a needle and thread.  

 In Spider 1997, a giant eight-legged creature rests above a mesh cage containing material objects from Bourgeois’s life and past. Bourgeois called these self-enclosed structures ‘cells’. Do you think the spider is protecting or entrapping these personal objects? Think about this idea of trapping or preserving memories and create an artwork that ‘traps’ memories of your own. What material objects would you include? What device – or cell – would you use to secure your memories?  

 In works such as Fée couturière 1963 and The Waiting Hours 2007, it’s the activity, product or trace of the spider that’s depicted rather than the spider itself. Notice the visible traces left by spiders in your area, or by another insect or animal – for example, webs, caught flies, ant hills, disturbed soil, worm trails, or nests. Create an artwork of what you find. Experiment by translating these traces into organic or abstract forms. What does your artwork reveal about the creature whose activity you’ve depicted?