‘Cell (Choisy Two)’ is from Louise Bourgeois’s series of remarkable and highly personal installations called the Cells. Inviting associations with the biological cell, imprisonment, or a place of solitary contemplation, these late works distil many of the central themes that resonate throughout Bourgeois’s storied career: childhood memories, familial relationships, and the unconscious.

The work will be presented at our booth at Art Basel Hong Kong from 28 – 30 March 2025.

Created from a steel wire cage, pivoting mirrors, and a pink marble scale model of her early childhood home at Choisy-le-Roi in the provincial outskirts of Paris, ‘Cell (Choisy Two)’ confronts and transmutes the contradictory feelings of confinement and security Bourgeois felt as a child, and bares the impact of psychoanalysis on her work.

The mesh steel cage invites the viewer to look but refuses physical access to the inner sanctuary. It also incorporates three rotating mirrors which perforate two sides and the top of the cage. These mirrors create a series of warped reflections and alternate perspectives that disrupt any sense of direct perception.

Bourgeois’s replica of where she spent several formative years is consistent with her incorporation of autobiographical forms within her work. The mirrors offer multiple perspectives on her childhood home, intertwining the viewer’s perception with the artist’s unconscious memories of that place. By doing so, Bourgeois not only fulfills the voyeuristic desire to look and be looked at, but also proposes the ambiguities inherent in both positions.

Opening on 25 March, we will present ‘Louise Bourgeois. Soft Landscape’ at our Hong Kong gallery, showcasing a selection of works from the 1960s to 2008, including rarely exhibited sculptures and works on paper.