Louise Bourgeois was the first artist to take on Tate Modern’s great Turbine Hall and when the new museum opened in May 2000 Bourgeois giant spider Maman and her three house-size towers I do, I undo, I redo were the first works of art to greet the museum’s thousands of visitors. Frances Morris, Director of Collection, International Art at Tate, commissioned the work as the first in the now famous series of Unilever installations, and worked with the artist and her team to realize this landmark site-specific project. Although her most ambitious works to date both Maman and I do, I undo, I redo have complex roots in Bourgeois earliest practice and would have been inconceivable without the experimental series of Cells which they follow. Frances will discuss challenges presented by the artist’s proposal and assess its place in the artist’s work. You can see Maman at Garage and also the models which were made in preparation for the other large works.
Small-scale models of the enormous towers I Do, I Undo, and I Redo can be seen in the Wunderkammer on the third floor of the Museum. Garage is also presenting the monumental bronze spider Maman (1999), which you can see on the square in front of the Museum.