Annette Messager's London exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery showcases suspended sculptures and uterine motifs

Annette Messager presented her first London exhibition since 2009 at Marian Goodman Gallery from April 19 to May 27, 2017. The French artist's show featured works exploring suspension and bodily representation, including "Pinocchio dans ses entrailles" (2008) with its red fabric guts and "Daily" (2016) with oversized objects draped with fabric figures. Newer installations like "Tututerus" (2017) and "Utérus doigt d'honneur" (2017) incorporated uterine motifs, some referencing Femen activists and Marianne, the French national symbol. Wallpaper drawings displayed uteruses containing skulls or the inscription 'Mon uterus'. The exhibition included references to Messager's earlier work like "Annette Messager Trickster" (1974) and influences from Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois. Among the sculptures were ruined Barbies and black snails with breast-like shells. The most compelling pieces were "Gants croix," "Gants croix oblique," and "Gants triangle" (all 2017) - geometric forms made of string and gloves with colored pencils at their fingertips. The review from ArtReview Summer 2017 noted the work's energetic quality while suggesting it felt thinner in form and concept than expected from the artist.