Following the blind leading the blind
(1997)
Medium
synthetic polymer and enamel paint on wood
Measurements
144.6 × 142.6 × 29.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1999
© Janet Burchill/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Gallery 10
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
The sculpture The blind leading the blind, 1941–48, by the American artist Louise Bourgeois is a double row of slender legs evoking traumatic childhood memories of events she witnessed from beneath the family dining table. In Janet Burchill’s version, the tapered legs of Bourgeois’s work are replaced with upturned picket-fence palings – a suburban ‘readymade’ material. Made upon Burchill’s return to Australia after spending six years living in Berlin, this work can be understood as a critique of cultural complacency and the lack of originality the artist felt characterised the Australian art world at the time.