Review C109
Exquisite pain is one of the installations produced by Sophie Calle specifically for her first solo Irish exhibition. By using a combination of image and text she communicates the most painful events of various people's lives. This display spans one wall of a long corridor and includes accounts of the most painful incident in the artist's own life: Calle was in New Delhi when her lover telephoned from France and ended their relationship. At the end of the corridor there is a reconstruction of the hotel room where she received the call. Opposite Exquisite pain various photographs and documents are displayed, which comprise an installation called Unhappiness . All these items relate to the period before the incident in New Delhi: they are stamped in relation to their time distance from the break-up and constitute a 92-day countdown to the event.
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| Sophie Calle: Exquisite pain (detail) 1984 – 2003 , courtesy Irish Museum of Modern Art |
The stories described in Exquisite pain are devastating. One man recalls how, when he went blind, his elderly mother had to travel from North Africa to take care of him. The colour red hangs over the text, the only thing the man can now see. The power of this installation lies in the testimonies of the individuals who took part: the accompanying imagery can only hope to be ancillary. The piece described above allows the viewer to envisage the events themselves. However, most of the other texts are accompanied by black-and-white photographs, some of which present literal interpretations that inhibit this process and seem trite in the face of such personal trauma.
Unfinished is a video piece also made specifically for this exhibition. It focuses on CCTV footage of customers using an ATM. Many photographs of these customers are displayed in an installation called Cash machine . The images are taken from the point of view of the cash dispenser and, displayed in their multiplicity, they constitute a striking visual.
Also exhibited are a number of other works, including Calle's earliest pieces. Perhaps the most intriguing of all the exhibits is the installation A woman vanishes . The disappearance of a Parisian art gallery attendant, who liked to document the behaviour of the art audience, is conveyed through photography and text. Her empty chair is dramatically presented, and viewers are informed that they have been observed to facilitate a similar analysis. Although this installation is perhaps the most memorable element of the exhibition, I cannot help questioning whether this is at best an elaborate and distasteful hoax, or at worst human tragedy turned into currency for a voyeuristic artist and an increasingly voyeuristic audience.
Catherine Lyons is a film maker based in Dublin.
Sophie Calle , Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, June - August 2004
