I Do, I Undo and I Redo

Louise Bourgeois the creator of three steel towers, named I Do, I Undo and I Redo was the first to create the first commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. She is regarded as one of the most important artists at work today. Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 where she studied until moving to New York in 1938. Throughout her career she has always made new developments in art while perusing a very personal path and removing herself from the avant-garde movements of her time. Her work explores ideas in painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking and performance.

Her installation in the Turbine Hall consists of three steel towers, each which are about 30 feet high. It includes spiral staircases that coil around central columns and supporting platforms which are surrounded by large circular mirrors. In each tower Louise Bourgeois placed a bell jar containing sculpted figures of a mother and child. Visitors of the Turbine Hall can climb the staircases to the platforms which Bourgeois envisioned to be stages for intimate encounters between strangers and friends. All encounters can be viewed from the bridge that runs across the Turbine Hall and the viewing platforms that over-look the space. The large circular mirrors are meant to reflect these encounters between participants and the architecture along with the viewing public and the towers.