MAMAN – Louise Bourgeois

Hi Folks!

Louise Bourgeois’s monumental spider sculpture MAMAN (1999) is a sight. This brown, furry, 9.2 meters tall, motherly figure with eight legs carries it’s unborn youngs with her in an egg sac. MAMAN brings to my mind my own mother who used to say: “If you have nothing nice to say, just zip it!” She was also furry with her dark leg hairs. But, Bourgeois claimed that contrary to the common interpretations the spider was a creature with positive connotations, and perhaps she was sincere. Or perhaps she was trying to tell us something about spiders.

-Gart