" In the early 1930s, Bellmer created an almost life-sized figure of a young girl, which André Breton and Paul Eluard described as ‘the first and only Surrealist object with a universal, provocative power’. He recreated the doll in a variety of forms. This version makes the element of sexual fantasy explicit by reducing her to two sets of hips. It also derives from Bellmer’s desire to maximise the articulation of this substitute body/object through the use of ball joints. Indeed, this work was originally known as Ball Joint, and was exhibited in the 1936 Surrealist exhibition of objects held in Paris." Taken from Tate website
This sculpture interests me in its way of dealing with abstraction of the human form. Its clearly sexual in its motive,yet putting that aside and looking at it from a visual perspective, I'm thinking about my prints and how I'm abstracting the pelvis bone area of the body and making a tessellating pattern
which was originally inspired by the Rorschach test type water colour I made in my earlier investigation.
In further development of this form I have made a clay sculpture reacting to this print.
My focus on this area of the body is coming from a perspective of female experience , thinking about the womb and menstruation and gestation, tidal connections, ebb and flow and lunar connections of waxing and waning. Life force and loss all protected by this hard cage like structure of bone. The duality of hard and soft and the body's natural protective structure of these tender areas.
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| "Janus Fleur" Louise |Bourgeoise 1968 |
In contrast this work by Louise Bourgeoise which is also abstract/ ambiguous but to me, at least seems to be based around this same, pelvic area. While also having sexual connotations, it feels less obvious or perverse than Bellmers " Doll"
This work is both male and female in its abstraction, and refers to "Janus" the god of doorways. I like the idea of this pelvis area as a doorway, is that a sexual reference or a reference to gestation and birth?
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