Sophie Calle’s most recent exhibition Absence examines her
distressing circumstances while going through her mother’s death. It uses various media: printed and framed texts, porcelain plaques,
and more than 50 photographs. The work conveys the mourning of the artist after
a loss of a loved one. Calle’s mother, Rachel Monique Sindler, died of breast cancer in 2006. Her last word to Calle was “souci”, which means worry in French. The text and photo based work conveys emotional moments related
directly to death, disappearance, and grief of loss. It first appears like a
personal diaristic work, but her heavy sentiment immediately gets passed on to
viewers, enabling them to relate to their own losses.
The gallery includes two bodies of works that
seem totally irrelevant to each other. At first glance, common sense predicts that these are two very different projects installed in two separate rooms. However, after a
thorough scanning of her work, one comes to realize that these visually
extraneous works surprisingly blend into a one theme of ‘absence’.
2013 Sophie Calle. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
The first small room
by the entrance of gallery contains Calle’s most recent series, Purloined. The work is based on
artworks stolen from The Gardner and others Museum in 1990. Calle shot photos of the space where
the art was once displayed, then added text descriptions of the stolen works that
she gained from interviews with guards, curators, and museum staff
members. The text that substitutes the disappeared image triggers the
curiosity in the viewer; they are led to wonder what was there before the works dissappeared. One might interpret this work mournfully, while others might pass with
indifference.
2013 Sophie Calle. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
The main gallery is where Calle thoroughly devoted her
memento mori on her mother’s death. After walking through a lace curtain
embroidered with the word “Souci,” viewer is bombarded with images and texts
with numerous uses of the same word “souci”, in framed paintings and photos.
Even without knowing the definition of this word which is ‘to worry’ in French,
it is apparent that this word holds significance once noticing its frequent
appearance throughout the work. While photo image of a giraffe statuette dominates the center of the wall, enlarged excerpts of her mother’s journal are displayed almost
symmetrically in frame. Next
to the giraffe, there is an inscription saying, “When my mother died I bought a
taxidermal giraffe. I named it after my mother and hung it up in my studio.
Monique looks down on me with sadness and irony.” The giraffe stands in
presence as a substitution of Calle’s mother’s absence. The giraffe Monique
performs as an alter ego of her mother, it is an artifact that aids Calle
overcome the agony of loss.
The right wall displays
photographs taken during Calle’s trip to North Pole to bury her mother’
belongings; a diamond, Chanel necklace, and photograph. Facing
is a wall of document photographs taken from
Lourdes, a small town in France, where Calle traveled with her dying mother.
The photos include ordinary streetscapes and objects that are only notable to
Calle. Each photograph contains poetic narratives alongside it. Pictures
and texts almost always weigh equally important in Calle's work. She considers
herself a "narrative artist". Photography is only used to concretize Calle's subject. Thus, only by the context of the work are we able to understand
clearly that the two different works actually carry the same leitmotif; the
loss of familiar and precious suddenly getting taken away. From the most personal memories widening to universal,
the two very differently treated projects ultimately result one theme of
memoirs of loss, leaving trail note of emotional resonance to viewers.
