Sophie Calle: "On The Hunt"

 Sophie Calle’s curiosity of people - specifically ordinary, everyday people - is undeniable. She has an ability to turn her subjects into art without asking much of them at all. She presents to us what is already there, and what has always been there, and we see it with a whole new perspective. 

Calle is a journalist more than a visual artist, but every written page is strong enough to stand on its own behind glass. Seeing her work in a gallery setting was a new experience, and because most of her work is in writing, can be slightly overwhelming. Select pages of her pieces are framed, some with very small text, the pages lining an entire room. Due to this, her work isn’t best received if the viewer is under a time constraint, there is a lot to take in.

One of her most memorable works was The Address Book. After finding a lost address book on the streets of Paris, Calle set out to create a map of the anonymous owner. She interviewed each of the contacts and eventually constructed a portrait of him. The piece became a eulogy for a living person; his own words completely absent from his life story.

Calle has the soul of a true writer. While her pieces gave a taste of her artistry, her work is best consumed over time, alone, in the solitude of the reader.