Spiral Woman

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon with two friends at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. There were main works there from two artists, Louise Bourgeois and Catherine Opie. Both very talented, especially in creating works that disturbed the mind (take that as you will for good or bad). I have to admit that many of Louise Bourgeois' creations went over my head or failed to interest me. Though there were a couple, especially "The Destruction of a Man" - a depiction of children dismembering and eating their father created as a reaction to her father having an affair - that made an impression. The one that really hit me was a hanging sculpture called "Spiral Woman".

It's visual simplicity was deceiving. But reading the placard beside it allowed me to look at this in a different light. The note questioned whether this spiral wrapped around her was really as malicious as we may first think. Is the spiral something that is constricting her as she attempts to break free or is it supporting her so she would not fall?

That question can be used for many things regarding life. The day I viewed it, I used it in the topic of relationship. And instead of answering with one or the other, I wondered if it could be both. They say that there are people who are in relationships because they just can't seem to be alone. Even if they are in a relationship that chokes the life out of them, they will stay trapped because without it, their life would fall apart. Being with that person keeps them sane. Such irony can exist.

Sometimes I feel like that spiral woman. Though not because I am in a relationship that chokes the life out of me. At least not in that negative sense. In general, as a human being, your mind goes through many possibilities in a day of what the future could hold and what is the best course of action for happiness. And even in happy and stable relationships, people would every now and then entertain an idea that perhaps being in this is preventing them from going off and doing something else. Though at the same time, they realize the importance of said relationship in their life, therefore keeping them beside the other, for better or worse.

I guess that's the big lesson in commitment. Learning that it's about sticking through the good times when you question nothing and the hard times when you question everything. Who knew viewing Louise Bourgeois would be an entire self-help book?

=)

There's a couple of pieces by Cathering Opie that I'd like to comment on, but I shall save that for next time...