Materializing absentness : sculptural matters in the works of Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse

Abstract

 This dissertation interrogates the often narrowly interpreted works of Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse, which, despite their complex approaches to materials and deep engagement with history, are readily understood through the lens of gender politics and personal traumas. It argues that it is the deeply rooted hierarchy of form over matter in art history and the predominance of narrative that obscure the historical and cultural connotations inherent in materials, overlooking other layers of meanings in the works of the two artists and their connections to the culture of their time. In examining two early sculptures by the artists—Bourgeois’ Memling Dawn and Hesse’s Laocoon—this research offers a different perspective to understand the material immateriality of their works by proposing the concept of “absentness” in relation to Michael Fried’s discussion of the distinction between the presentness of Modernist sculptures and the mere presence of Minimalist objects. Neutralizing the pure visuality and autonomy of the former and the relationality and phenomenological emphasis of the latter, “absentness” evokes the presence of absence through the interplay between perception and conception based on the physicality of the works. The study highlights the “absentness” in Bourgeois and Hesse’s sculptures, which brings attention to the intangible forces of anthropocentric modernization and mass culture through their manipulations of materials. This paper concludes that the choices of materials of the two artists play an important role in creating realistic encounters of an increasingly abstract and distant world, underlining not what we see but how we see things.