Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child at the Hayward Gallery

Ina

Apr 7, 2022

2 min read

Updated: Oct 6

The Hayward Gallery on the South Bank showed Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child from 9 February to 15 May 2022. This page is a record of what was in it.

A large spider sculpture standing over a mesh cage, with a visitor in a dark coat looking at it in a white gallery

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child – What Was in the Show?

The Woven Child was curated by Ralph Rugoff, the Hayward's director, with Katie Guggenheim and Marie-Charlotte Carrier. It brought together about 90 works, and the Easton Foundation was among the lenders.

The works included fabric figures, heads and hung clothing, as well as several of her cages. The gallery kept the rooms open, so from the upper level you could see several works at once.

A gallery seen from above, with visitors walking between a small wooden cell in the foreground and glass cases beyond

Who Was Louise Bourgeois?

Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and died in 2010. Her family ran a Paris workshop that restored woven wall hangings, and the Hayward tied the show's title to that background.

Cloth, thread and sewing run through the whole exhibition. The works in the next sections show the range, from a single small figure in a glass case to a cage hung with dresses.

A tall glass and wood vitrine in a gallery with one small pink figure standing on a plinth inside

What Did She Make From Fabric?

Some of the figures are soft and pink, with rounded bellies. They stood on low plinths under a curved glass cover, so you looked down on them.

A pink fabric figure with a round belly on a grey plinth, with similar figures on white plinths behind it under a curved glass cover

Two heads faced each other on white plinths. One was cream and one was pink.

Two fabric heads, one cream and one pink, facing each other on white plinths on a wooden floor

A blue pair stood in a corner, a couple in an embrace. The fabric is a thick, fuzzy blue, and the two figures lean into each other.

A blue fabric couple with round heads standing in an embrace against a white wall

What Is a Cell?

Bourgeois's Cells are enclosed spaces, built from mesh, wood or glass and filled with objects. You look in from outside.

One cage in the show had dresses hanging in it and two white spheres on the floor. The mesh made the room feel closed off even when visitors walked all the way around it.

A round cage of black mesh on a wooden floor, with a blue dress and a white dress hanging inside and two white spheres at the bottom

A smaller cell used old doors and glass panels, with white garments hung above them.

A dark cell made of panels and doors, with white slips and a nightdress hung inside it and a lamp on the floor

In the middle of the gallery, white slips hung from a pole, each with an orange fabric hand at the shoulder. The concrete wall of the Hayward stood behind them.

A pole in a gallery hung with white slips and nightdresses, each held up by an orange fabric hand, with visitors and a concrete wall behind

What Did Critics Think of The Woven Child?

Time Out gave the show four stars out of five. The Hayward ran it for just over three months.

Where Did the Show Go Next, and Where Can You See Bourgeois in London?

The exhibition travelled to the Gropius Bau in Berlin, where it ran from 22 July to 23 October 2022.

In London, Tate says it holds 28 works by Bourgeois. They include Maman, a gift in 2008, which Tate displayed from 11 April to 25 August 2025. Tate's collection search shows what is on view.

The Woven Child: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX.

📅 Open days: 9 February to 15 May 2022.

🚇 Getting there: Waterloo is the nearest station. My page on Waterloo Station covers the way out to the river.

🗺️ Nearby: The South Bank walk east leads to London City Hall and Tower Bridge.

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.