Louise Bourgeois

Give or Take, 2002, Bronze with silver nitrate patina, 8.6 x 59.6 x 12.7 cm, Tate; AL00343, © 2021 The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY; Photo: © Tate, London / Art Resource, NY

Give or Take

Commentary by Christina Juliet Faraday

Cite Share

If all were a single organ, where would the body be? (1 Corinthians 12:19)

There is strength in diversity, Paul tells us: ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?’ (v.17).

And if the whole body were an arm?

Louise Bourgeois presents us with this image: a useless limb, an arm with a hand at either end, one outstretched, the other clenched. This is the opposite of the body described by Paul, which is diverse in its members but unified by its relationship to the whole. Here instead the limbs are identical, but fundamentally at odds.

The arm and hands of Bourgeois’s sculpture are those of her studio assistant Jerry Gorovoy. She often represented their hands entwined together, as they must have been at times over the thirty years that they worked together in her studio. We could, then, read this sculpture as a figuration of our different roles in society—something to which Paul also alludes when he writes:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. (vv.4–6)

God is the beggar who is clothed, and the donor who offers her cloak. Both actions, giving and taking, have the same source: done to God and inspired by him (see Matthew 25:34–40).

But the title, Give or Take, offers us a choice: what do we do with that which we have? Paul describes the right use of spiritual gifts, not for our own exaltation, but in the service of the community: ‘To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.’ (1 Corinthians 12:7). Bourgeois presents us with the same choice: keep what you have, or share it around? In the body, as in society, the part affects the whole: ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together’ (v.26). Give or take, open or closed: what will we choose?

 

References

Madden, Allan. 2014. ‘Louise Bourgeois, Give or Take, 2002’, Tate Modern Online Catalogue [accessed 27 April 2020]

See full exhibition for 1 Corinthians 12

1 Corinthians 12

Revised Standard Version

12Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single organ, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, 25that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

More Exhibitions