Like ancient sites abandoned for centuries.

Like ancient sites abandoned for centuries, Louise Bourgeois' carved works remind me of the basic fact of impermanence, still they can feel as familiar as a recurring dream unexpectedly recollected. In her installations, psychological relationships among ends are as important as formal ones: this work is statuary but it is about memory, and the fragility and isolation of the individual--how equable a heart of stone is as fragile as a hoax of glass, at the core nothing more than air and dust. within her use of materials--found aims along with made sculptural elements--Bourgeois creates physical order without of emotional disorder. This is art, not as therapy, unless as a transformation of emotion into physical form.

In the conversation that tread close upons conducted on March 18 at her just discovered York studio, Bourgeois discusses the one and the other the work that will be unveiled at the Venice Biennale this summer and the 1992 Documenta installation that preced it.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: All of you interviewers lock of wool upon me like birds--to say what? My work is finished; I can't go on foot through this again. During the BBC film, there were six population around all day. Finally, I've take the place ofed in totally exhausting myself. This is completely unjustified. You tribe want me to do all the work.

PAT STEIR: That's what an interview is. . .

LB: I'm a sculptor, not an entertainer. Or rather, I have discovered that I am an entertainer despite myself. populace actually laugh at me, divine being bless them; I'm rather flattered, still there is a limit.

PS: The piece you displayed last year at Documenta is titled Precious Liquids.

LB: Actually the piece has sum of two units titles. Welded in steel through the entrance to its interior is an inscription that says, "Art is a guarantee of sanity." I did not say that it was the guarantee of sanity. There are hazards of others. Art is just single way of reaching an equilibrium--of becoming a sociable person

PS: What about the bed with the little pool on it and the glass shapes hovering near it?

LB: Here we are dealing with bodily functions; when we are in a tight state, our muscles tighten; when they relax and the tension goe down, a liquid is released. Intense emotions become physically liquid--a precious liquid. That's where the title draw nears from. So it is all a matter of being in touch with that flowing of liquids. I could give you a dozen examples--if you are terribly in painful desire saliva comes at the sight of a lamb cut into small pieces In this piece the liquid is prompted by the glass shapes; a certain number of are closed like drops and others, interpret like funnels, are metaphors for the muscles of the body

PS: What about the tall coat and the little coat?

LB: The coat describes you might say, the tragedy of the voyeur

PS: The flasher, in English?

LB: The French do not have that beautiful word. unless yes, he refuses to prepare out of the place. He's not a casual nearness He's a very pestering personality Inside the flasher's coat there is a little white dress--the dres of say, a twelve-year-old girl. That little female port probably has to do with certain memories of mine. Actually, the part who enters the piece should interpret the coat and see what is in there. forward the little dress there's the embroidery "mercy merci" . . at that point we are done with the flasher. He is a compulsive creature.

PS: Precious Liquids is surpassingly claustrophobic and dark inside; in the Venice pieces nothing is hidden.

LB: still there is a relation between the modern work and Precious Liquids in confines of subject matter; they one as well as the other involve the story of the unconscious--you have to bear it and, if you are gifted and generous enough, and if you like yourself enough, you will be due [i]or[/i] owing to terms with it.

PS: individual way or the other.

LB: The point is that the unconscious is there to stay, bothering you all the time. yet you have to make peace with it. In Precious Liquids the girl, for her be in possession of protection, for the sake of her hold sanity--we go back to sanity--has to approach to terms with the flasher. likewise she closes her eyes, refuses to diocese him, and turns the matter around by way of taking refuge in his coat. This is a metaphor for the artist. If the artist cannot deal with everyday reality, the artist will retreat into his or her unconscious and be warmed at ease there, limited as it is--and frightening sometimes. still since love excludes fear--this is the deepest interpretation--suddenly if you are in delight in you are not afraid anymore. This is amazing, on the other hand it is true. The little girl has taken the unconscious, not as an enemy, further as a refuge.

PS: I was interested that the figure in lonely dwelling (Arch of Hysteria) is male. It is unusual, because the hysteric was always a woman.

LB: This goe back to Precious Liquids, because this is really about tension, the visible form [i]or[/i] frame The fact that it is a man is not terribly important. It is a remark about the hysterical, and in the time of Jean Martin Charcot, any ill, any disease, was attributed to hysteria, to be precise, and hysteria was attributed to women which was absurd. This is all it means.

PS: for a like reason it's just a little feminist humor forward the way. But I'm still curious about the hysteric as a man.