Elizabeth Purchase is a first-year student and is participating in Maureen Korp’s FYSM Special Studies in Art History – Visual Literacy. Throughout the term, students will seek out Ottawa’s arts scene and critique the good, the bad and the ugly according to a set of criteria they discuss in the classroom. What students define as bad art, is not a reflection on the work itself, but a comment on the curatorial choices made in exhibiting the piece
Maman is the fifth in a series of student submissions that critique Ottawa-area public art to be included in This Week @ FASS. .
Maman
By Elizabeth Purchase
Ottawa displays many examples of public art in its downtown core. One of the most recognizable sculptures is Maman by Louise Bourgeois. It is sited on the plaza in front of the National Gallery of Canada at the corner of Confederation Blvd and St. Patrick St. Maman is an example of public art many would label “bad”.
Maman is a giant spider cast in bronze, and towering 30 feet tall. Her official dimensions are 927 x 891 x 1024cm . She has a sac of 26 marble eggs under her belly. The eight long legs look twisty like tree roots of different heights all landing on the ground at different angles. In Maman’s construction, the artist has combined several sculptural techniques: The carved eggs are an example of a subtractive technique; the body cast in bronze, and the whole (Maman and her eggs) is an example of assemblage technique. “Maman” was cast in 2003 and purchased by the National Gallery in 2004 to be installed in 2005 .
Maman does not have a near by identification plaque. Nor is there a base. Maman is just standing there, silent and mysterious. Looking at Maman, one cannot know exactly what purpose the work serves. Spiders are not welcoming creatures. They live in old, dusty, and abandoned buildings. The Parliament Buildings, the National Gallery, and Notre Dame are all visible from where Maman stands. Are these all abandoned buildings? The National Gallery’s web site acknowledges a visitor might feel both “a sense of security” as well as a sense of “entrapment, leading the viewer to question whether Maman is protector or predator.” Really? Not me. I do not have any questions about Maman. Its gigantic size does create a sense of entrapment. Maman is clearly more predator than protector.
As a work of art, Maman standing all alone is brilliant. However, in its present location, Maman is out of place. Maman might be more appreciated were it in a more natural setting. Some say a sculpture by someone so internationally renowned as Louise Bourgeois was intended to make the National Gallery’s plaza the place to be. If so, Maman fulfills her duty. People do know what you mean when you say “I’ll meet you by the spider at six.” Of course getting people to the entrance of the National Gallery does not get them inside the door.