Kayla Herring
Consume, 2024
Oil and mixed media on canvas, 18 x 24
The piece contains two paintings each measuring 18x24 inches on canvas, created in oil paint and various mixed media materials. Created for display at the Guggenheim the pieces would triple in scale to be visually around the same size as Louise Bourgeois’ piece titled The Destruction of the Father which in its entirety is seven by eleven feet.
Bourgeois’ piece, was conceptually formed by her fantasy where a father is consumed by his enraged children during a family dinner thus eliminating him as a source of trauma in their lives. My artwork is inspired by the complexities of parent-child relationships within toxic or abusive households. Reflecting on a family hierarchy that I could potentially destroy if I were to express rage towards my childhood.
Bourgeois’ hesitancy to completely expel her father from her life is symbolized by consuming him but retaining him within her body therefore not fully exiling him. This aspect of the piece resonates with the psychoanalytic theories Bourgeois studied throughout her life. The Object relations theory, developed by Melanie Klein, is touched upon and explains when a child sees an an object, or in this case a parent, as negative they destroy it in their unconscious but simultaneously realize a sense of physical and emotional loss in their absence.
In my paintings, I depict this complexity through symbols of growth and decay as metaphors for laudation and hatred. The first painting is a depiction of my father asking whether I am ready to remove myself from his shadow. In the second painting asking myself if I continue to be both parent and protector for my mother even when I am hurt by the abandonment she showed toward me. Do I want to smash the plates on the table that sets the scene for our family dinner or do I want to hold them together, sacrificing my happiness for the unity of my family?
Through the engagement of the psychoanalytic ideas Bourgeois was influenced by and exploring how they resonate with my own life, my artwork seeks to cause a reflection on the intricacies between family trauma, emotional dependency, and the delicate dance between desperately wanting to remove yourself from a source of trauma and a sense of duty to keep the family unified.
