Sophie Calle (born 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. She is fascinated by the interface between our public lives and our private selves. This has led her to investigate patterns of behavior using techniques akin to those of a private investigator, a psychologist, or a forensic scientist. It has also led her to investigate her own behavior so that her life, as lived and as imagined, has informed many of her most interesting works. Calle's very first work involved following strangers around the city of Paris. Calle had been abroad for a number of years and the idea behind this surveillance was initially an attempt to reacquaint herself with the city. However, she soon discovered that observing the behavior and actions of these strangers provided information with which to construct their identities.
"...These works had involved me so much in the act of following that I wanted, in a certain way, to reverse these relationships. So I asked my mother to hire a private detective to follow me, without him knowing that I had arranged it, and to provide photographic evidence of my existence." Sophie Calle
Calle’s work is relatable to mine because we are both taking images of strangers, usually without them knowing. While she is following people around, however, I am either lying in wait for people to come to me or going to find them. I do not pick a specific person to follow but that might be an interesting way for me to go. We are both pushing the limits between private and public spaces.
Gallery:
http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/artists/6
Website:
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Interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/16/artnews.art
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_10_31/ai_78738614/
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