Louise Bourgeois’s Crouching Spider: Do Not Touch or Climb Talk

Hosted by Arts Everywhere, join fellow students and community members in a lively discussion about contemporary artist Louise Bourgeois and her work at the Ackland Art Museum.

Can a meme be a way of engaging with a work of art? Can a meme describe how and what we see around us, both individually and collectively? How does such description differ from traditional ways of interacting with art in and outside of a museum? How does the location of a work of art (outside rather than inside) condition or liberate the viewer’s interaction with it?

The installation of artist Louise Bourgeois’s Crouching Spider and Eye Benches I on UNC’s campus inspired a variety of responses. Louise Bourgeois was a hugely influential contemporary artist, and Crouching Spider manifests some of the major themes of her work. We’ll be giving some background on Bourgeois and her art, but also facilitating an open discussion of some of the dank spider memes generated by UNC undergrads. These productions comment on collective emotional and intellectual experiences of the art, compare it to other structures on campus, and draw out some of the political implications of public art. This event will also include a walk over to Crouching Spider, where the Ackland Art Museum’s Object-Based Teaching Fellow, Alexandra Zeigler, will lead us in an exercise in close looking, encouraging us to deepen and critically examine our responses to the sculpture and its context.

Free, no registration required. Light refreshments will be served.