Sophie Calle is a first-person French artist, in her works she directs herself shamelessly and unreservedly, recounting stories she has lived with a definite concern for detail. She turns the people around her, whether she knows them or not into important values in her work. Her work is simple in idea and often invading of privacy, however she uses this crude uproar to her artistic advantage. Calle’s style interests me greatly; I view her work as a way in which she converses with herself and compensates for loneliness, however as a reverse or a distortion, she gets to know people without ever speaking with them; she just likes to experience how different people react to her works.
Suite Venitienne
‘I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me.’Sophie intended to get to know people without talking to them, taking a distorted perspective on a conversation.
The Sleepers
‘I asked people to give me a few hours of their sleep. To come and sleep in my bed. To let themselves be looked at and photographed. To answer questions. To each participant I suggested an 8 hour stay.’ Although this suggests a stalkative attitude, There is definition within a conversation; rather than interacting with someone who is awake, she interacts with someone sleeping.
The Blind
‘I met people who were born blind. Who had never seen. I asked them what their image of beauty was.’ This is a harsh distortion which can describe how people often have conversations with themselves; we are shown how people imagine things and how much sound, touch and smell are just as important in a conversation as much as speech and sight.
Sophie Calle’s work has influenced some of my research for ‘a conversation’, as I found her work as an artist interesting and something I wanted to try for myself.
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