In the 1990s, while in her eighties, Louise Bourgeois devoted herself to the creation of these magical chambers, the Cells, in which she gathers objects that are dear to her and which are invested with a strong emotional charge. The Cells are places where she unravels the fabric of her memories and her emotions.
Precious liquids is an imposing cylindrical installation into which the spectator is invited to enter. It is a dark enclosed space, composed of a cylindrical cedar water tank, such as can be seen on the rooftops of New York, and designed for collecting “precious liquids”.
The liquids are those that the human body produces when subjected to emotions such as fear, joy, pleasure, suffering. Blood, milk, sperm and tears are thus the precious liquids that the artist orchestrates in this space.
At the centre of the strange barrel is an old iron bed surrounded by posts supporting glass spheres, whose function is to decant, via the pipes that connect them to the puddle of water in the middle of the bed, the liquid that rises when it evaporates and falls back down again when it condenses.
TESS TENNESSEE MILLER 