Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist whose career spanned seven decades. She is one of the most influential figures in modern and contemporary art. Best known for large-scale installations, Bourgeois also produced sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints about motherhood, sexuality, trauma, and relationships. Her works have been exhibited worldwide and are in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.

In 2005, Bourgeois donated a pair of sculptures titled Hold Me Close to the Tsunami Sculpture Memorial Project at Nopparat Tara National Park in Krabi. Placed in the garden and pool surrounded by tall trees, they depict two pairs of hands in prayer-like pose and, separately, a single child’s hand. Together, they are a deeply emotional tribute.

For Bangkok Art Biennale, Eyes, 1995, a pair of carved granite spheres, relate to introspection. Eyes are often said to be windows to the soul. Placed inside the Miskawan Garden at Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), the round forms with bulging pupils face the giant sacred golden Buddha partially visible through the temple’s windows. Although Eyes relates to seduction and voyeurism, it could also connote visionary insightfulness in Dhamma. The old bodhi tree next to Eyes inside the sanctuary is a sacred space for contemplation and peace.

At BACC, Janus in Leather Jacket, 1968, is a double-sided sculpture suspended in midair. The title refers to the Roman god Janus, whose two faces look into the past and future. Here, Bourgeois creates a more ambiguous image merging both male and female genitalia, and bringing castration and penis envy to mind.

Nature Study, 1984, represents the mother as dog-goddess and protector. A nurturing figure with multiple breasts and a phallus crouches like a sphinx or demigod next to Femme, ca 1960, a headless, voluptuous naked female torso. Placed in a room painted red, a color Bourgeois associated with intense emotion, these sculptures transmute female, particularly maternal, power. They share space with sacred yoni stone carvings from the 15th century Lopburi period.