Couple

Mediums: fabric, threads, lace.
Location: the Tate Gallery (London, the UK).

The work is a rag doll, for the manufacture of which Bourgeois used a variety of materials: fabric, lace, nylon stockings and socks. It is suspended from a ceiling on a rope and depicts two headless people wrapping each other in a tight hug. One of them is “dressed” in men’s clothing – a blue striped shirt and black flannel, and the second one has obvious signs of femininity, such as lace and nylon tights. With this double figure, the author tried to express the complexity of the relationship between a man and a woman, whose embrace can mean both spiritual and physical closeness, as well as the limitations that bring tension and pain.