Name: Valerie J. Fletcher
Occupation: Senior curator of modern art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Residence: Springfield
What I want to tell you about this piece: It’s a metaphor, or a symbol for a state of mind that is riddled with anxiety, even fear. And yet there is, at its core, reassurance. The entire space is enclosed by a metal cage, the kind of fence that you put around animals or property. But it has three round mirrors that tilt slightly outward. There’s an intimation that you can get in and out, at least psychologically, of this space.
At the center, three hands are carved in flesh-pink marble. Two of them are small and frail. Those are the artist’s hands. The other is longer and male. It’s her assistant’s hand. She suffers from so much anxiety that she needs him, once in a while, to calm her down. That’s what this pose is: his confident hand claiming her small, nervous ones.
There’s an implication that you may be surrounded by damaged things in your life, but there’s always a central core: Somebody loves you.
If you go
Louise Bourgeois
Where: Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Seventh Street and Independence Avenue SW
When: Through early 2010
Info: Free; 202-633-4674; hmsg.si.edu
