Cells
While in her eighties, Bourgeois produced two series of enclosed installation works she referred to as Cells. Many are small enclosures into which the viewer is prompted to peer inward at arrangements of symbolic objects; others are small rooms into which the viewer is invited to enter. In the cell pieces, Bourgeois uses earlier sculptural forms, found objects as well as personal items that carried strong personal emotional charge for the artist.
The cells enclose psychological and intellectual states, primarily feelings of fear and pain. Bourgeois stated that the Cells represent “different types of pain; physical, emotional and psychological, mental and intellectual… Each Cell deals with a fear. Fear is pain… Each Cell deals with the pleasure of the voyeur, the thrill of looking and being looked at.”
A Title: Cell (Three White Marble Spheres); Date: 1993; Material: steel, glass, marble, and mirror; Measurements: box: 81 3/4 x 85 1/2 x 84 1/2 in. (207.6 x 217.2 x 214.6 cm); Repository: Saint Louis Art Museum
B Title: Cell V; Date: 1991; Material: paint; metal; wood (plant material); Measurements: 233.6; 182.8; Repository: New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Technique: assembling (additive and joining process); painting (image-making);
C Title: Cell VII; Date: 1998; Material: mixed media; Measurements: 207; 220.9; Repository: London, Malborough Fine Art Ltd.; Technique: assembling (additive and joining process);
D Title: Cell XXV (The View of the World of the Jealous Wife); Date: 2001; Location: Exhibited at Cheim & Read, Fall 2001; Material: steel, wood, marble, glass, and fabric; Measurements: 100’ x 120’ x 120’
E Title: Cell XXIV (Portrait); Date: 2001; Material: steel, stainless steel, glass, wood, fabric; Measurements: 70 x 42 x 42 inches