Double Game - Camden Art Centre

Combining retrospective elements with a series of new work, this major exhibition explored the interplay between fact and fiction.

Sophie Calle’s work arose from her response to New York author Paul Auster’s novel Leviathan which features a character, Maria, based on Calle.  In one group of work, Calle carried out a number of Maria’s fictional projects, including The Chromatic Diet which involved restricting herself to foods of a single colour each day for a week. Another group represented existing works by Calle which Auster ‘borrowed’ for his fictional artists. Amongst these was a re-working with sound of Suite vénitienne (a piece documenting Calle’s detective-like pursuit of a casual acquaintance). The third group of work, Gotham Handbook, documented Calle’s attempts to ‘become’ a fictional character, by following instructions on ‘how to improve life in New York City’, written for her by Paul Auster at her request.

 

 

Images Related Events The Artist

Film Screening: Double Blind

Saturday 13 & 20 March (1999)
Double Blind (1993), is a video narrative created by Sophie Calle and Gregory Shepard as they set out on a drive across the USA. In this real-life road movie, the artists document their journey using portable camcorders, each recording their private feelings as well as their versions of shared events. The plot thickens as the travelers share their ride with a stranger who becomes the passive witness of the two would-be lovers and their conflicting views.

Talk: Stella Duffy

Sunday 14 March (1999)
Writer Stella Duffy, author of Beneath the Blonde, read from and contrasted her work with Calle’s, looking at the role of woman as both fugitive and follower.

Talk: Calle on Calle

Friday 26 March (1999)
This was a unique opportunity to hear Sophie Calle’s own view of her work and exhibition at Camden Art Centre. Organised in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts.

The Artist

Sophie Calle lives and works in Paris and has exhibited internationally since the late 1970s, most recently at the ARTNOW Room at the Tate Gallery, London and the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, both in 1998.