A work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed.
Louise BourgeoisRead
Space is something that you have to define. Otherwise, it is like anxiety, which is too vague. A fear is something specific. I like claustrophobic spaces, because at least then you know your limits.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Space must be defined to avoid ambiguity, much like how specific fears are clearer than vague anxieties.
In this quote, Louise Bourgeois emphasizes the importance of defining the concept of 'space' to provide clarity and understanding. Just as anxiety can feel overwhelming due to its vagueness, the idea of space becomes more manageable when we set boundaries or limits, akin to how specific fears can be more easily confronted. By referencing her preference for claustrophobic spaces, she suggests that knowing one's limits can offer a sense of control and safety amidst the complexities of emotion and environment.
Themes
SpaceAnxietyFearLimitsClaustrophobic
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on mental health, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of defining feelings to gain clarity.
More from Louise Bourgeois
All quotes →Clothing is . . . an exercise in memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that. They are like signposts in the search for the past.
Louise BourgeoisRead
It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive.
Louise BourgeoisRead
I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.
Louise BourgeoisRead
It is not a torment to be an artist. It is a privilege.
Louise BourgeoisRead
Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have_x000D_ said.
Louise BourgeoisRead
Similar quotes
All great and precious things are lonely.
John SteinbeckRead
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.
Le CorbusierRead
The food we eat masks so much cruelty. The fact that we can sit down and eat a piece of chicken without thinking about the horrendous conditions under which chickens are industrially bred in this country is a sign of the dangers of capitalism, how capitalism has colonized our minds. The fact that we look no further than the commodity itself, the fact that we refuse to understand the relationships that underly the commodities that we use on a daily basis. And so food is like that.
Angela DavisRead
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.
Nhat HanhRead
This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can... reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'
Leonard CohenRead
It is cold anarchy to say that all men are to meddle in all men'smarriages. It is cold anarchy to say that any doctor may seize andsegregate anyone he likes. But it is not anarchy to say that a fewgreat hygienists might enclose or limit the life of all citizens,as nurses do with a family of children. It is not anarchy, it istyranny; but tyranny is a workable thing.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead