A pair of art installations that have greeted those on UNC’s campus the last few years will no longer be there when students return in August.
The Arts Everywhere initiative at UNC announced Monday the “Crouching Spider” and “Eye Benches I” statues along East Cameron Avenue are set to be returned as their loan is complete. The pieces, created by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, sit near Phillips Hall and the New West Building.
🕷️ We’re sad to announce that in just 8 days Louise Bourgeois’ Crouching Spider and Eye Benches I will be leaving UNC. Help us bid farewell by sending us your photos, videos, memes, poems, paintings or goodbye messages for our favorite 8-legged friend & the all-seeing benches! 👁️ pic.twitter.com/tP1FGLeSqt
— Arts Everywhere UNC (@ArtsEverywhere) July 26, 2021
Bourgeois, an influential sculptor and installation artist, created “Crouching Spider” as a tribute to her mother, according to UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. The piece, which is on loan from the Easton Foundation, was initially set to be on display for just one year when installed in August 2018. Due to the other Bourgeois installation lasting through 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, though, the statue remained.
The bronze and stainless steel spider, which stands nine feet tall and 27 feet wide, has often been a source of social media discussion and internet meme inspiration among the UNC student body.
On the other side of Cameron Avenue sits “Eye Benches I,” which UNC also installed on loan in August 2018. Gifted by the Louise Bourgeois Trust for a two-year loan, the piece is made of granite and is fashioned into two seats.
To send off the Bourgeois artwork, UNC’s Arts Everywhere is encouraging campus community members to submit any sort of photos and videos, as well as artistic and written submissions, about the pieces to be shared on the initiative’s social media channels. The creations honoring “Crouching Spider” and “Eye Benches I” must be submitted by Monday, August 2 at 8 a.m.
Submissions can be emailed to artseverywhere@unc.edu and creators’ names, as well as social media handles, must be included if they want to be credited for their work.
Photo via Janet Ayala/The Daily Tar Heel.
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Who protested the spider?