Silent Landscapes: A Comparative Approach to José Leonilson and Louise Bourgeois

Abstract

"This paper compares the works of two visual artists whose œuvres operate in in-between spaces between the visual and the verbal as much as between the self and the Other. Comparing the works of José Leonilson (Brazil, 1957- 93) and Louise Bourgeois (France/USA, 1911-2010) reveals creative and constitutive activity in a space that can best be described via the metaphor of a seaside landscape in which the line we try to draw to divide salt water from sand never stands. In what manners, however, could the poetic space these artists create be significant for a broader spectrum than literary interests? In our understanding, Leonilson’s and Bourgeois’s poetics operate through a silent hearing of the Other, whether that be loved ones, stone, or cloth. This conceptual notion, required for creative action, thus establishes a particular notion of balance between them and the Other. It is this precise aspect that also operates the mobility of the notion of love through their œuvres, and through the selection of personal emotional narratives as the thriving force for creation."