The Woven Child - Louise Bourgeois

This show at the Hayward Gallery highlights the last 20 years of the artist’s life. Predominantly using fabric as her medium, the work explores themes of home, family, memory and betrayal. Playful one moment and unsettling the next, familiar materials and domestic settings house shockingly surreal and nightmarish forms. I liked the juxtaposition of impossibly delicate lace garments draped over cattle bones used as coat hangers. Arrangements of silk flowers, crystal buttons and other treasures are displayed like relics on needlework samplers. A strong, feminine, poignant and tender expression of a lifetime’s obsessions.