In The Address Book, Sophie Calle uses a calculated method of documentation of her interactions with the contacts in an anonymous man’s address book. She presents her piece almost as a series of journal entries. Each print corresponds to a separate day and describes her interaction and conversation with each person in the address book. Her work reads more as a compulsive study of one man, getting to know him through personal accounts from his acquaintances or friends. She channels these interactions, which could be mundane conversations in any other context, into what is essentially a massive “database” of information about this man--Pierre D. His presence is created despite his absence. Pierre D.’s “negative”--the stories and truths told by his friends and contacts--comprises a positive portrait.
Calle’s melding of art and life is carried through many of her pieces, including Exquisite Pain, Take Care of Yourself, and The Address Book. Her installation of Take Care of Yourself presents itself as a collection of 107 different responses to a break up letter, signed “Take Care of Yourself,” that Calle received. She asked women from a range of professions and backgrounds to interpret the letter in the manner that best matched their line of work, thus amassing a treasure trove of autobiographies. The installation reflected more the personalities and accounts of the women analyzing the letter than the reality of the man who wrote it. Similarly, The Address Book displays evidence of real interaction, as a testament to the work’s entwinement with Calle’s own life.
Calle’s work often evokes similar qualities to the work of Walid Raad, especially his ability to blend life, art, and protest. His political discoveries, and realistic representations of the war in Lebanon, for example gathering bullets and photographing the findings, are similar to Calle’s astute observations and documentations of human interaction.
The fact that Calle’s work focuses on a diversity of background, along with the innate desire to experience and learn from individuals’ stories is reminiscent of the photographic processes of Niki S. Lee. In photographing groups, Lee integrates herself within a particular culture of people, achieving her photo only after she has spent weeks with them. Thus, Lee’s work instead becomes more about human interaction and relationship than about the photograph. Similarly, Calle’s work is truly a series of detective missions, in which Calle seeks to diagram the inner workings of conversation, of relationships, and of personal accounts. Her resulting accounts are simply the method of documenting the occurrence of her artwork as it parallels her life.
Formally, Calle’s work appears in a myriad of forms, ranging from photography and video to found object sculpture to embroidered text on linen. The Address Book tamely presents itself as a series of prints, evoking an almost newspaper-like quality, complete with low resolution photographs on each page. Accompanying the text prints is a lithograph of the address book cover, and Calle’s own conclusion to the event at the end of the linear display. Calle uses exacting, almost scientific techniques within the body of her text, recording the precise date and time of each interaction, any dialogue, and her own thoughts. In her conclusion she states, “Pierre, I have ‘followed’ you, ‘searched for’ you, for over a month. If I ran into you on the street, I think I could recognize you...” Calle’s observations in the end are romantic and strikingly informal. It’s as if you could be talking to Sophie herself, right there in the museum, or reading her diary on a living room couch. Ultimately, the whimsical spontaneity that Calle’s life already contains is what makes her artwork so accessible, so humanistically real.
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