PASSAGE DANGEREUX
Blending memory with metaphor, Passage Dangereux explores the transition from childhood innocence to the complexities of adulthood, narrated from the viewpoint of a young girl.
This intricate web of found and made objects—a testament to Bourgeois’s ability to materialize the intangible—creates a tableau of the human psyche in transition.
It is Bourgeois’s most expansive Cell, with six room-like bays representing different chapters in a young girl’s coming of age.
The elements throughout symbolize this fraught journey of sexual awakening, from nests alluding to nature and biology to an electric chair insinuating guilt and punishment. Chairs hanging above reference Bourgeois’s father, while a tiny spider on the floor symbolizes her mother. The small desk, in the corner by the parents’ bed where the ‘primal’ scene is taking place, signifies the child as a witness.
Altogether, the tableau resonates with the potential traumas faced in the development of one’s psychic and sexual life. The installation, both protective and constrictive, embodies the thresholds we pass through as we evolve. Mirrors, instruments of introspection and self-examination, integrate viewers into the artwork. They also reflect the surrounding classical paintings, enriching the viewers’ sense of time and connecting them to the history of art.