Enormous spider in Hague pond

An enormous metres-tall spider by Louise Bourgeois, the ‘grand old lady’ of contemporary art, will be placed in the Gemeentemuseum pond in The Hague on Tuesday.

The monster is meant to advertise the exhibition of sculptures by Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois, which will be held at the Gemeentemuseum from 11 September to 16 January 2011.

In ‘Double Sexus’ the oeuvres of Bellmer and Bourgeois are brought together for the first time ever. Although the two artists never met, their work displays striking similarities. They both used deformed human bodies with missing or duplicated limbs and melded male and female characteristics, producing androgynous beings.

Louise Bourgeois, who died in May, was celebrated worldwide for her colossal spiders.

Spider by Louise Bourgeois. Photo by Frank van Rossum/